In the event that foreign affairs minister Louise Mushikiwabo is elected to the position of Secretary General of International Organisation for La Francophonie this October — which observers say is highly likely — she will have been at the top job for 10 years.

It will make her the first one to hold this role for that long since Rwanda Patriotic Front took over power 24 years ago.

She will have left a legacy marked by daunting challenges, which to a reasonable degree she managed to navigate, and earn a number of milestones for her country.

During her tenure, Rwanda has steadily gained ground in its quest for political, economic and diplomatic influence around the world.

Just this year, the country hosted influential politicians including the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, China’s President Xi Jinping and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The country has positioned itself as an independent actor, taking on international responsibilities including actively engaging in peacekeeping missions, making it the fourth-largest troop contributor to the United Nations.

More recently, the country actively advocated for pan-Africanism and showcasing itself as a model of African integration by opening its borders to citizens of the world with a 30-day visa on arrival.

However, Ms Mushikiwabo found a longstanding conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda made interventions in that country to deal with FDRL rebels.

While the country exhibited relatively superior military performance among other actors in the DR Congo conflict, observers believe it emerged out of the conflict diplomatically bruised.

To begin with its military fought a bloody war with its hitherto strongest ally in the great lakes region, Uganda, and relations between the two have since been characterised by suspicion.

And, when it emerged that parties in the conflict looted natural resources from DR Congo, the international community accused Rwanda of fighting a proxy war through rebel outfits and tainted its human rights record. These events provided material to discredit the country.

Between 2012-2013, the country seemed to be losing diplomatically after international lenders and donors including staunch allies such as the UK and the US moved to withhold badly needed financing.

In 2011, Uganda and Rwanda’s relationship was mended after President Yoweri Museveni provided funds for the Ntare school project in Rwanda. President Kagame then visited Uganda and the two leaders gifted each other cows.

However, in 2017, officials in Kigali particularly in the military and intelligence talked of bad faith on the side of Kampala, alleging that Rwandan opposition group RNC was running a cell in Kampala.

Hostilities worsened when Kampala arrested several senior police officers and a Rwandan citizen on suspicion of being part of a Rwandan security sleeper cell in Uganda.

Over the years, the foreign minister has flown back and forth to fight attempts to isolate Rwanda. An orator and fluent speaker of French and English, Ms Mushikiwabo has spoken up boldly for the country.

She oversaw the opening of several embassies in Africa, Asia and Europe. Rwanda has set a footprint in Francophone Africa such as Equatorial Guinea, Congo Brazzaville and Senegal. National carrier RwandAir has routes in some of these countries.

The country has also joined several regional, continental and international bodies such as the Commonwealth.

Former parliamentarian Amb Zenu Mutimura says joining these blocks has helped Rwanda.

“Joining EAC did not come easily but we negotiated well. On the Commonwealth, we benefited from numerical strength and good international relations,” says Amb Mutimura a former High Commissioner to Tanzania.