The United States and Rwanda have signed a five-year, $228 million Bilateral Health Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), marking a major step forward in the countries' expanding strategic relationship, Report informs referring to KTPress.
The agreement was signed in Washington on December 5, 2025, by Jeremy Lewin, Senior Official and Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs, and Religious Freedom, and Rwanda's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olivier Nduhungirehe.
The new arrangement outlines a comprehensive roadmap to save lives, strengthen Rwanda's health system, and advance US global health priorities under the America First Global Health Strategy.
The MoU commits the United States-pending congressional approval to provide up to $158 million over five years to support Rwanda's fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other infectious diseases, while strengthening disease surveillance and outbreak response.
Rwanda, in turn, plans to increase its domestic health spending by $70 million, progressively assuming greater financial responsibility as US support is scaled down.
By the fourth year of the program, Rwanda is expected to take full ownership of its HIV/AIDS response.
This new framework comes in the wake of the Washington Accord, the political and economic agreement signed earlier this year involving the United States, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, aimed at stabilizing the Great Lakes region and deepening US engagement in East and Central Africa.
It also follows a similar US–Kenya bilateral health cooperation agreement, demonstrating a broader US shift toward multi-year country-to-country arrangements that prioritize accountability, national ownership, and reduced dependency on parallel NGO systems.
Rwanda's strong record on health outcomes played a key role in shaping the partnership.
The country is among the few globally to reach the 95-95-95 HIV epidemic control targets, while also expanding its national health insurance coverage and modernizing essential health infrastructure.
The MoU aims to accelerate these gains by investing in cutting-edge systems and transitioning service delivery from NGOs to Rwandan public institutions and health workers.
The agreement also reinforces US commercial and technological interests in Africa.