On Wednesday, Rwanda introduced Nkuza Neza, the nation’s first-ever results-based financing program focused on improving early childhood care and education for children aged three to five. The $13 million project seeks to strengthen the quality, inclusiveness, and accessibility of early childhood development (ECD) services across the country.
The program is overseen by the National Child Development Agency (NCDA) in partnership with the Education Outcomes Fund (EOF), with support from the LEGO Foundation. Over a four-year period, the initiative aims to reach more than 25,000 young learners in 390 community-based ECD centers.
Funding will be tied to measurable results, especially outcomes for vulnerable children, to provide solid evidence of what strategies work best in early education.
This launch supports Rwanda’s wider mission to build strong human capital from the earliest years. According to UNICEF, the pre-primary enrollment rate in Rwanda was 24.2% during the 2021/2022 academic year. While data tracking has improved, the agency emphasized that access to early learning remains limited in many rural communities.
For the government, using a results-based model introduces a fresh approach to improving accountability, quality, and equal access in early education. Early childhood development has increasingly been recognized as a crucial foundation for long-term socioeconomic advancement.
A World Bank article published in June 2024 reported that Rwanda currently has around 31,000 ECD centers serving more than 1.2 million children.
By expanding access to quality learning environments for children between ages three and five, Rwanda hopes to reduce inequality, improve school readiness, and prepare the next generation with foundational skills, while generating reliable data that could influence policies across the African continent.
