Rwanda is situated in Central and Eastern Africa and is a landlocked country in the African Great Lakes region.
Rwanda spearheads a progressive agenda on economic and trade integration, climate ambition and multilateralism. It is among the countries that is making the most progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly on health, education, gender equality and environment.
Our partnership
The EU supports Rwanda’s ambition to transform its economy, advance the green transition, foster an equitable society and become an upper-middle income country by 2035 in line with Rwanda’s National Strategy for Transformation and Vision 2050 and the EU’s Global Gateway Strategy.
Team Europe in Rwanda brings together the EU, the European Investment Bank, France, Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Greece, Sweden, Austria, and Denmark.
The EU allocated €260 million in grant funding to the partnership with Rwanda over 2021-2024. Rwanda also benefits from several multi-country EU programmes.
Multiannual Indicative Programme 2021-2027 for Rwanda
Multiannual action plan 2021-2023
Our flagship initiatives
- Production of pharmaceutical products
to support Rwanda’s ambition to become a regional hub to produce pharmaceutical products. Team Europe support focuses on:
- Enabling environment: the EU provided laboratory equipment for the Rwandan Food and Drug Authority and established twinning – the exchange of expertise – on vaccine and human medicines production regulatory oversight between Rwanda and EU Member states.
- Workforce qualification: the EU and Rwanda launched a Master of Science and PhD programme in biotechnology in partnership with European universities; Team Europe will support Technical Vocational Education and Training programmes to ensure the skills needed in the pharmaceutical sector are available.
- Private sector investment: the EU and Rwanda organised the first EU-Rwanda Business Forum which brought together European and Rwandan pharmaceutical companies with the government. The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen visited Kigali, Rwanda in December 2024 for the BioNtech Africa launch event.
- Agriculture
to transform the country’s agricultural sector towards sustainable and inclusive agriculture systems while ensuring environmental protection and biodiversity conservation. Team Europe focuses on:
- Inclusive and sustainable value chains: the EU supports the development of a variety of value chains including horticulture, fruits, aquaculture, fishery, and small livestock.
- Kigali Wholesales Market: the EU supports the construction of the Kigali Wholesale Market which will be the first market of this kind in Eastern Africa and key in making Rwanda a distribution hub for fresh produces in the region.
- Critical Raw Materials
to support Rwanda in nurturing sustainable and resilient value chains for critical raw materials, the EU and Rwanda signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a strategic partnership on critical raw materials in February 2024. It is the framework to support Rwanda in formalising and professionalising its artisanal mining sector, to improve with compliance with international standards and due diligence and promote regional value chains.
- Cities
to support the sustainable and inclusive urbanisation by focusing on:
- Informal settlements: the EU supports the upgrading of informal settlements in Kigali, including flood prevention.
- Modernising urban mobility: Team Europe is supporting the re-design and re-construction of the central bus station, dedicated bus lanes, and the setting-up of intelligent traffic systems.
- Improving satellite cities: EU supports the sustainable urbanisation in Rwamagana and Nyamata through smart cities tools.
- Education and skills
to support the Government’s economic development strategy, aimed at diversifying the economy towards high productivity knowledge-based sectors, through investment in education, technical and vocational skills, and improving access to, and quality of early childhood development by constructing pre-primary classrooms across the country.
- Energy
to improve access to energy through constructing low- and medium-voltage networks, rehabilitating and upgrading distribution networks, and supporting the construction of a transmission line to the Ruzizi III regional hydro power plant.
- Transport
to enhance transport infrastructure and efficient and safe connectivity. The EU is supporting Rwanda on the governance of road transport and conducting a pre-feasibility study on the Northern corridor railway and a multimodal transport solution with waterborne transport on Lake Victoria and the Akagera river as part of the Mombasa-Kisangani transport corridor.
- Governance
to put more emphasis on public accountability and citizen participation in decision-making processes. EU support focuses on:
- Support voices and accountability, democratic participation and civil society, Rule of Law, Human Rights and ending violence against women and girls.
- Strengthen economic governance to promote investment and a conducive business environment including by combatting illicit financial flows.