The map of Africa is loosely shaped as a big question mark and for many years, the rest of the world decided the continent was a problem that required answers.

For fifteen years since 2000, the Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) agenda has been the talk on the continent with development experts regarding it as a more elaborate attempt towards answering the African question.

September 2015 is the deadline for MDGs to have answered the African question, after that, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will take centre stage for the next fifteen years until 2030.

The MDGs and SDGs regimes are global initiatives but most of the challenges they seek to address such as extreme poverty and hunger are mainly seen as African problems.

But as the continent heads into a transition from MDGs regime to SDGs, how have African countries such as Rwanda performed towards meeting the millennium targets?

Era 2000-2015

At the turn of the century, world leaders committed to "spare no effort to free men, women and children from abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty.”

This pledge inspired the now famous eight millennium development goals which included eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; ensure universal primary education, gender equality and women empowerment, reduce child mortality and improve maternal health.

Other goals were combating HIV and malaria, environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development.

Have countries met these MDGs? How has the agenda helped transform African countries such as Rwanda since 2000?

In his foreword for the 2015 MDG report, United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon said, "The global mobilization behind the Millennium Development Goals has produced the most successful anti-poverty movement in history.”

That’s largely true as the MDGs regime is lauded for having lifted more than one billion people out of extreme poverty in the last fifteen years.

Statistics from international development bodies indicate that, globally, the number of people living in extreme poverty has declined from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 836 million in 2015 with most progress reportedly registered in the MDG era.

However, when the regime grinds to an end this September, there will still be 1 billion people living on less than $1.25 a day - the World Bank’s measure on poverty.

Another more than 800 million people do not have enough food to eat, meaning that hunger, like poverty are still daunting even after fifteen years of battling them.

The primary school net enrolment rate in the developing regions has reached 91 percent in 2015, up from 83 per cent in 2000; the number of out-of-school children of primary school age worldwide has also fallen to an estimated 57 million in 2015, down from 100 million in 2000.

A fair amount of success was also registered under the other targets, globally. However, many countries in the sub-Saharan are not expected to have met their national MDG targets when their deadline knocks in two months’ time.

Rwanda’s MDG progress

Rwanda is one of the few African countries that will meet most of the targets before the September deadline, at least according to statistics from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, according to MDG annual progress reports.

Official statistics indicate that Rwanda’s economy on average grew by 8.2 percent between 2008 and 2012 a period during which more than a million Rwandans were lifted out of poverty and the country was on track to achieve the MDGs on health and education.

In 2000 when the MDGs agenda was announced, Rwanda’s poverty levels were estimated at 60.4 percent; this had however eased to 57 percent by 2006 and 44.9 percent by 2011 with 24 percent in extreme poverty.

However, government expects poverty headcount to have dropped to 30 percent with abject poverty no-more by end of 2018.

However, Rwanda’s major challenge to eradicating extreme poverty is how to mobilize more resources to scale-up existing programs as well as ensuring sustainability of growth that can translate into job creation.

Rwanda is on track to have fully achieved the second MDG on universal primary education having dragged net enrollment from 72.6 percent in 2000 to 96.6 percent in 2013.

At least 78.6 percent of all kids enrolled in primary school complete their education compared to 22 percent in 2000; the ultimate target is 100 percent completion rate and government says it’s on track.

Under SDGs regime, Rwanda intends to shift focus on improving quality of education and reducing the teacher to student ratio, this calls for more classrooms as well as teachers to be trained.

On gender equality, Rwanda has satisfied all indicators under this target which seeks to have, 50-50 share of seats held by women in national parliament; the current count is 64 percent female representation from 26 percent in 2000, the best, globally.

Rwanda has achieved targets for gender equality largely by amending national laws but changing attitudes of a traditionally male dominated society is not as easy and this will be the challenge for policy makers in a bid to sustain gains.

The percentage of women in off farm jobs is also still very low and government says reversing the current status is another challenge to improving the economic status of mainly women headed households.

Under MDGs four and five, countries pledged to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health.

Government says Rwanda is on track on all indicators under this category including dealing with infant mortality rate which has been reduced from 107 deaths per every 1000 births in 2000 to 50 in 2011 against the 2015 target of 28 deaths.

On combating HIV/Aids, malaria and other killer diseases, government says it has reduced prevalence rates for HIV from 13 percent in 2000 to 3 percent in 2011 and malaria related deaths have since been reduced to 7.6 percent of 100, 000 deaths, closer to 5.1 percent target.

The proportion of Rwandan children under five years of age sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets has also surged from just 5.0 percent in 2000 to 69.6 percent in 2011.

Why SDGs?

For countries like Rwanda that have gained a lot from MDGs, experts say it’s vital that they sustain their achievements to avoid back slipping and sustainable development goals are seen as the best way to achieve that.

At least seventeen goals have been proposed for countries to pursue in the post-MDG era and these are set to be endorsed at the UN headquarters in New York in September.

The difference between MDGs and SDGs is perhaps in the level of ambition and resolve; for instance where the target was to eradicate extreme poverty, the new resolve is to end poverty in all forms.

Between 2015 and 2030, world leaders hope that diligent implementation of the sustainable development goals will not only uphold achievements from the millennium development goals or help deliver success where failure has been registered.