RMEO was launched under the name of Rwanda Monitoring and Evaluation Association (RMES) on November 4, 2016. I was a peer learning group funded by the Rwanda Government Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN) through one of its now defunct capacity building vehicles called Capacity Development and Employment Services Board (CESB). 
This initiative was jointly supported by international development partners, key among them, UNICEF Rwanda and Enabel. On May 24, 2017 RMES organized its first general assembly in Kigali to establish its structure as an autonomous association. A board in form of a non-paid Executive Committee was elected. This marked its departure from a peer learning group to an entity seeking to have legal status under the laws of Rwanda. 

Thus, the application for an operating certificate was requested in the 2018 under a new name of Rwanda Monitoring and Evaluation Organization (RMEO) as recommended under the law governing national NGOs. It obtained its Non-Governmental Organization Certificate of Legal Personality N°969/RGB/NGO/LP/02/2024 in 2024.