Anthropic signs a 3-year Rwanda MOU to expand Claude across health, education, and government

Anthropic and the Government of Rwanda announced a 3-year Memorandum of Understanding on Feb 17, 2026 to formalize and expand their work across health, education, and public sector systems. Anthropic says this is the first time it has formalized a multi-sector partnership through a government MOU on the African continent, which makes the deal important not only for Rwanda but also as a template for state-level AI deployment.

The agreement covers three tracks. In health, Anthropic says it will support national goals that include eliminating cervical cancer and reducing malaria and maternal mortality. In government, developer teams across institutions will receive access to Claude and Claude Code along with training, capacity-building support, and API credits. In education, the MOU formalizes a fall 2025 agreement that included 2,000 Claude Pro licenses for educators, AI literacy training for public servants, and a Claude-powered learning companion deployed across eight African countries.

Why the Rwanda agreement stands out

This is more substantial than a narrow pilot. The announcement frames the partnership as a multi-year effort to combine model access with local skills, institutional support, and room for Rwanda to shape adoption around its own priorities. Rwanda's Minister of ICT and Innovation described the goal as designing and deploying AI solutions at a national level to strengthen education, health outcomes, and governance.

Anthropic also emphasized capacity building over simple software distribution. Elizabeth Kelly, who leads Beneficial Deployments, said the company is investing in training, technical support, and operational independence so that teachers, health workers, and public servants can use AI safely and directly. That emphasis matters because many public-sector AI announcements focus on tools first and long-term local capability second.

If the partnership delivers measurable results, it could become a closely watched model for how frontier AI companies work with governments outside North America and Europe. The combination of health targets, public-sector developer access, and education rollouts makes the Rwanda deal one of the more concrete state-backed deployment agreements announced this year.