Rwanda: A Real Model for Africa

20 percent of Rwanda's population was killed in the 1994 genocide and two million of its people were displaced. The violent episode took a heavy toll on its economy and health service.

Close to two decades after Rwanda’s darkest hour, the country is being hailed as a model for recovery and reinvention and praised as a spectacular public health success story.

Danielle Beswick, a lecturer and specialist on Rwanda at the University of Birmingham speaking to Aljazeera stated: "Rwanda has been able to develop quite an innovative relationship with the donors. Rwanda as a government has quite  unique approach, a strongly nationally-owned approach to development which is a thing that we don't often see in Africa .... Donors don't just feel guilty and therefore they pour money into Rwanda. They also recognise that the Rwandan government has a strong vision for development."

United States health experts in a study say Rwanda has improved the quality of life in almost all walks of life. One year after the genocide life expectancy stood at 30 years; latest figures show it has now almost doubled to 59.

To fully get the Rwandan picture, a comparison would be necessary. Ethiopia has an average life expectancy of 54 and in the conflict-stricken Democratic Republic of Congo, it is 49.

In 1994, 78 percent of the population in Rwanda lived below the poverty line. By 2010 that figure had dropped to 45 percent, and in the five years up to 2010, one million Rwandans were lifted out of poverty. Rwanda is also winning the fight against infectious diseases.

Deaths from HIV, TB and malaria have each dropped by around 80 percent over the past 10 years. For tuberculosis, Rwanda has a rate of around 128 sufferers per 100,000 people. In Ethiopia it is close to 400 people, and in the DRC it is well over 500 for every 100,000 people.

Selam Hailemichael, Care International in Norway also speaking to Aljazeera stated: "The vision and the framework first needs to be in place for aid to make sense.... For the country to reach the level that it's at now, I would say what has contributed is the shared vision .... It's quite a mixed information that's coming out of Rwanda, that's a fact. But [what we are seeing] is a very inclusive development in Rwanda".

The African nation has emerged from a failed state, to break the cycle of poverty, despair and disease. Paul Kagame has also being described as the model for African leaders.