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This a health campaign by the umbrella group, Rwanda NGO Forum on AIDS and Health Promotion
More than 1,600 cases involving civil society organisations in Rwanda have been recorded as not meeting legal or regulatory requirements, according to a report by the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) to Parliament.
The figures cover local and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), foundations and faith-based organisations. They include organisations that failed to meet requirements for registration, legal personality, operational certificates and compliance with government directives.
A closer breakdown of the figures, however, shows that 1,453 applications were classified as not meeting requirements. The broader figure of 1,612 also includes 159 local NGOs that did not apply for the compliance certificate required under the new law.
Legal requirements differ across civil society organisations. Local NGOs must provide recognised leadership, notarised statutes, district collaboration letters, annual financial and activity reports, and action plans.
International NGOs must demonstrate authorisation in their countries of origin, donor funding and approval to operate in Rwanda.
Foundations must show their initial assets, objectives and governance structures.
Faith-based organisations face additional requirements covering worship premises, leaders’ qualifications, financial audits, donor identification and safeguards against money laundering and terrorist financing. They must also provide 1,000 supporting members when seeking a district collaboration letter. This is not a universal membership requirement for all existing churches.
Local NGOs account for the largest share of the cases. A total of 536 did not meet the requirements for a compliance certificate, while 210 failed to meet requirements for legal personality. Another 159 did not apply to harmonise their operations with the law.
Together, these cases bring the number involving local NGOs to 905 under the broader calculation.
Among international NGOs, 27 did not meet requirements for new operational certificates, two failed to meet requirements for legal personality, and 25 did not meet the conditions for renewal of their operational certificates. The total is 54.
Foundations recorded 52 cases in which requirements for legal personality were not met.
Faith-based organisations accounted for 601 cases. Five did not meet requirements for legal personality, while 596 did not comply with additional guidelines issued by RGB on March 7, 2025.
The report also records organisations that met the requirements and received approvals. These include 179 local NGOs granted compliance certificates and 174 granted legal personality.
Among international NGOs, 15 received new operational certificates, eight were granted legal personality and 82 received extensions of their operational registration.
For foundations, 33 were granted legal personality. In the faith-based sector, four received legal personality, while the report’s summary records six organisations as having met the additional guidelines.
Using these figures, RGB recorded 501 approvals across the different processes. The report does not establish that these represent 501 distinct organisations, since one organisation may have applied for more than one approval.
The figures also leave 260 local NGO compliance applications under review. These have not been counted among those that failed to meet requirements.
The distinction is important because the figures do not necessarily mean that all the organisations listed have been closed. Failure to meet a particular requirement, loss of legal personality, and suspension or closure of operations are different regulatory outcomes.
Rwanda’s Law No. 058/2024 governing NGOs introduced a unified legal framework for civil society organisations. It requires organisations to meet registration and compliance conditions set by RGB.
The report’s figures therefore provide a picture of the scale of compliance work across the sector, but do not, on their own, establish how many organisations have permanently ceased operations or been formally shut down.
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