Rwanda's national budget for 2026/27 has risen to Frw 7,796.3 billion, a 12.1 per cent increase from the revised 2025/26 budget, but spending on services for children is not keeping pace. The United Nations warned on Thursday that as grants decline and domestic resources take over, the government must protect funding for education, health, social protection and water, sanitation and hygiene. The call was made in a budget brief launched by UNICEF Rwanda in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN).
Domestic resources now finance 67.6 per cent of public spending, while external grants account for 7 per cent, marking a shift away from donor dependence. However, the combined allocation to the four child-focused sectors has increased by only 4.2 per cent to Frw 1,711.3 billion, equivalent to 22 per cent of the national budget. This falls short of projected inflation of 10.5 per cent, meaning the sectors will have less purchasing power despite receiving more money in nominal terms. Their share of the national budget has also fallen from 26.8 per cent to 22 per cent over five years, and in real terms the allocation is now lower than it was in 2023/24.
Education, the largest of the four sectors, receives Frw 907.3 billion, with about 88 per cent financed domestically. The health sector has been allocated Frw 500.2 billion, a 0.3 per cent decline in nominal terms, with donors still financing 48.4 per cent. Social protection receives Frw 157.3 billion, the only sector with an allocation below its 2022/23 level as donor funding has fallen by about one-third. Water, sanitation and hygiene records the strongest growth at 15.8 per cent to Frw 146.5 billion, but remains 61 per cent dependent on external support.
Despite funding constraints, Rwanda has achieved measurable progress. Poverty fell from 39.8 per cent in 2017 to 27.4 per cent in 2024, while extreme poverty declined from 11.3 per cent to 5.4 per cent. Stunting among children under five fell from 33 per cent in 2020 to 27 per cent in 2025, and under-five mortality declined from 45 to 36 deaths per 1,000 live births between 2019/20 and 2025. Pre-primary enrolment more than doubled from 24.2 per cent in 2021/22 to 50.3 per cent in 2024/25. However, about three in ten children still live in poverty, and 11 districts report stunting rates above 30 per cent.
UNICEF Rwanda Representative Lieke van de Wiel said sustained investment in children had produced measurable results and urged protection of these gains. Jeanette Rwigamba, Head of National Budget Department at MINECOFIN, said the report would guide decisions as the government prepares the 2027/28 budget. She said investment in people remains a key pillar of Rwanda's development agenda and the government is committed to ensuring resources benefit children.
For savers, borrowers, business owners and investors in Rwanda, slower growth in child-focused spending could affect the long-term availability of a skilled and healthy workforce needed for economic development, even as the overall national budget expands.