MfM CEO on Development, Madagascar and being ‘Malagasy-led’: Lova Rasoalinoro

‘Malagasy-led does not mean a Malagasy person has to be the CEO or something like that, but a solidarity model, a global team, and ensuring that the Malagasy community we serve has the power to determine their development course.

‘…we have expertise and ideas. We can make a difference to our lives and situations, and this can be of real use for the rest of the world as it faces the realities: climate change’s impacts are already affecting people, and unless action is taken, they will affect many, many more, in all parts of the world.‘

In a far-reaching interview, Money for Madagascar’s CEO Lova Rasoalinoro discusses the development sector, what it means to be ‘Malagasy-led’, helping Malagasy people identify their own challenges and solutions, and her hopes for the future of development, Madagascar, and its people.

How and why did you get involved with Money for Madagascar?

I first got involved with Money for Madagascar when I was studying my Masters degree in International Development at the UEA, in the UK.

My background is in forestry. After graduating as a Forest Engineer at the University of Toliara, I worked in the conservation and development sector.

I chose to study International Development because having been in the development sector for ten years, I wanted to deepen my knowledge.

I have seen that development projects, including natural resources management, hasn’t worked at all because they are kind of formed within the donor’s policy, requirements that are far more in the interest of the donors than the communities themselves.

The traditional ways for systems of how development work has been done is that money and power are usually from the global North, beneficiaries and recipients are in the global South.

I could really see and feel that when doing this work, imposing things on communities, rather than communities developing their own projects and solutions.

So I did a Masters to learn more how to change that.

As part of that, I got to know MfM. I needed a placement, so I was looking at organisations, and I joined MfM then.

One thing that struck me then – I was given a booklet the organisation had produced to show what we are and do, and what was written was Malagasy solutions for Malagasy problems. This really meant something to me as a Malagasy person working in this sector.

So, in the summer of 2018, I supported them as an intern. I worked on Resilient Forests and Livelihoods because of my forestry expertise. I was reviewing the programme and working closely with partners within it, to develop funding proposals. So that was my first involvement.

When I moved back to Madagascar, I continued to support the development of that project. But that coincided with the country representative leaving, so I was asked to take that on as well, which I did in October 2019.

How should things change for MfM and/or development?

Part of the change within the global development context is that there is greater recognition now of the power shifting to local organisations and people. Previously, most decisions about what money goes where were made by large organisations based in wealthier countries.

So, there is now increased recognition that decisions should be made by people affected, by the local communities experiencing the challenges and issues. That’s been MfM’s ethos and values from the beginning, which we are looking to formalise within the changing global context.

But also, our role as an organisation is to unlock the potential within the communities we exist to serve, so that they can take charge of their own destinies, their own development.

It’s not only money that can drive change, it’s also local knowledge, non-financial resources. People know their own situation, the environment and world they are in. They know what they need.

The thing that makes me stick like a magnet to MfM is I want us to be a real model, a leader, to apply that dedication to development decolonisation.

 

And how are we doing this?

Our first objective is to become Malagasy-led, so we are setting the foundations for that.

We have put in place our Accord de Siege, our legal registration as a Malagasy organisation with Madagascar’s government, which recognises us officially as an organisation operating in Madagascar.

One thing it means is that now for the first time we can legally employ Malagasy staff. Before, we were employing people through local organisations, we contracted them to represent us in-country, and to manage and coordinate our operations.

But now we have set that so we have a global staffing structure to mobilise that global expertise, and global solidarity: Malagasy people and people from elsewhere, to serve that power, unlock that power, serve the communities to be in charge of their development course.

Malagasy-led does not mean a Malagasy person has to be the CEO or something like that, but a solidarity model, a global team, and ensuring that the Malagasy community we serve has the power to determine their development course.

It’s our responsibility to help that and help our partners to do that.

We have six strategic objectives. The first is to be Malagasy-led. We are still getting to that, the shift is happening.

It requires us to think about our whole organisational structure, at staff and board level.

Currently we have two Malagasy people sitting on our board of trustees.

Our focus now is on building these pillars, setting them in place, with our human resource systems and processes, internal organisational changes, and then we have our strategic objectives, our programmes and our advocacy, building Malagasy people’s capacity.

I think it’s important we start there: what we are as an organisation, how we work with our partners, what our approach is, why that matters, and in what ways is it different from traditional systems.

 

What are your hopes for the future?

I hope that we can deliver that our programmes are developed using the philosophy of being responsive to those we work with and for.

We have already delivered the route to programme development using the approach of deep listening: we are checking and delivering responses based on the needs of communities and people in them.

I also pray that model is documented so that we can advance it and share it with other organisations, show that it works, how it works, and those other organisations can follow it.

But it’s also not just us. We want to communicate this approach to our current delivery partners. We are empowering them to make that shift to unlock their potential as organisations, to support communities in ways that are making communities themselves have decision-making power.

 

Why is Madagascar important?

If we think about the development sector, Madagascar is at the top of the list of the world’s least developed countries. But there’s also the fact that it is facing the consequences of the global processes, including climate change.

Climate change is a global issue, and one which affects Malagasy people in an unfair way, and is increasing the vulnerability of Malagasy communities a lack of resources and responses to deal with it.

We require an equitable global response to a global problem.

Because we are the least developed countries, the image is conveyed that because we don’t have money and power, we can’t shift the situation.

But we have expertise and ideas. We can make a difference to our lives and situations, and this can be of real use for the rest of the world as it faces the realities: climate change’s impacts are already affecting people, and unless action is taken, they will affect many, many more, in all parts of the world.

This is why the role of equitable effective development as opposed to those who have money and power making decisions others must just follow, is so important.   

 

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