{"id":22436,"date":"2025-04-28T17:55:57","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T17:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/?p=22436"},"modified":"2025-04-28T18:26:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T18:26:22","slug":"steps-towards-the-future-but-more-must-be-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/mg\/steps-towards-the-future-but-more-must-be-done\/","title":{"rendered":"(English) Steps towards the future – but more must be done"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miala tsiny fa tsy mbola misy amin'ny teny malagasy ity lahatsoratra ity.<\/p>

<\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron and his Malagasy counterpart Andry Nirina Rajoelina have agreed and announced a series of agreements on education, agriculture and energy, as well as one promising a joint study of a massacre in which some believe 200,000 Malagasy people were killed by French soldiers and politicians.<\/em><\/h4>\n

We welcome the development initiatives \u2013 and hope the \u2018commission of historians\u2019 helps the families of the massacre\u2019s victims learn more about what happened and how, and to gain some resolution in their fight for justice \u2013 but note that in the current global context, far more needs to be done to help ensure Malagasy people have the opportunities and comfort we all deserve. <\/em><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/h4>\n

The French and Malagasy presidents have signed agreements which seek to progress Malagasy energy production and Malagasy people\u2019s access to electricity, improve education standards and increase access to food in the state.<\/h4>\n

Emmanuel Macron and Andry Nirina Rajoelina have also agreed to set up a \u2018joint commission of historians\u2019 to study the actions of the French army in Madagascar which killed certainly tens of thousands, and some estimate hundreds of thousands, of Malagasy men, women and children in 1947.<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/h4>\n

Development<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In what was, as we noted<\/a> last week, the first bilateral visit by a Franch president to Madagascar for 20 years (Jacques Chirac was the last president to make a visit in 2005), Macron made commitments and pledged funding to Malagasy development in areas in which we at Money for Madagascar already work.<\/h4>\n

They included the \u2018mobilisation\u2019 of more than \u20ac24m for a \u2018Joint Education Fund\u2019, which is designed to improve Malagasy teaching standards and the quality of technical and vocational training, as well as strengthening equality and equity in education. It will also enable the construction of a new Malagasy university.<\/h4>\n

\"\"This initiative is welcome, and touches upon and complements work we already do in Madagascar, where our Education for Life<\/a> programme helps provide teacher training and equipment for teaching, as well as increasing access to education, and the means (including food and school equipment) by which young people can achieve their full potential at school, amongst other things, and our Children for the Future<\/a> programme provides educational access \u2013 including to technical and vocational training, as well as schools and universities \u2013 to young people unable to live with their families.<\/h4>\n

The new university is of course a very positive development, and connects closely to our vision, which is built on the needs expressed to us by Malagasy men, women and children.\"\"<\/h4>\n

The Malagasy government also agreed a deal for delivering resilient and sustainable agriculture in Madagascar, again a priority we are working on: our Resilient Forests and Livelihoods<\/a> programme addresses the needs of Malagasy people, 79.9 per cent of whom live on or below \u00a31.73 per day, and most of whom have at best precarious access to food, to produce more food and\/or increase their incomes, while ensuring they can do so without damaging \u2013 and in fact while protecting and expanding \u2013 the Malagasy rainforest.<\/h4>\n

The French government has committed to a loan for the construction of a hydro-electric power plant in Volobe, near Toamasina, which will produce electricity for around two million people.<\/h4>\n

\"\"Once again, this coincides with our own activities \u2013 in response to the fact that just 36 per cent of Malagasy people have access to electricity, we are working with two Malagasy partner organisations on the Solar United Madagascar<\/a> programme, providing solar power to communities without a connection to the grid. French firm EDF will take a 37.5 per cent share in the Volobe station, which is expected to cost \u20ac350m to construct.<\/h4>\n

And the two presidents have also confirmed a deal under which the French Development Agency (AFD) will commit \u20ac300m up to 2028 to support \u2018inclusive and sustainable growth, centred on human capital, good governance and economic development.\u2019<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/h4>\n

Post-colonial investigation<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The men also announced a proposed \u2018Joint Historical Commission\u2019 in which Malagasy and French historians will study the French army, and colonial politicians\u2019 brutal response to a Malagasy insurrection against colonial occupation in 1947.<\/h4>\n

The insurrection, born of the denied hope that Madagascar would be granted independence from France following Malagasy people\u2019s efforts in the Second World War, and by the reintroduction of slave labour by the French, saw 20,000 Malagasy people rise against the 35,000 French settlers in the state.<\/h4>\n

Around 590 French people (350 of them colonial soldiers) and 1,900 Malagasy supporters of the French were killed in the first stage of the insurrection, but the French response was brutal, with estimates ranging from 11,000 to 50,000 killed directly, and as many as 150,000 people killed, including by starvation, as a result of their displacement.<\/h4>\n

Madagascar gained full independence from France 13 years later, in 1960, but it was not until Chirac\u2019s visit to the state in 2005 that France officially recognised the massacre and in his words the \u2018unacceptable nature of the repression caused by the colonial system.\u2019<\/h4>\n

During Macron\u2019s visit last week, he returned the crown of Malagasy Queen Ravanalona III, which had been in a French museum, and pledged the return in August this year of three skulls from a Paris museum, which were removed 125 years ago. One is beieved to be of King Toera of the Sakalava people, who was decapitated by French troops in 1897.<\/h4>\n

He said that the Commission would be set to: \u2018study the atrocities committed during that time, and hopefully create the conditions for forgiveness for the colonisation by returning human remains and by engaging in a joint work of remembrance.\u2019<\/h4>\n

Rajoelina announced a new round of meetings on 30th June about the contested Scattered Islands, five small islands near Madagascar that both the French and Malagasy state claim as their own.<\/h4>\n

Rajoelina said France and Madagascar are: \u2018determined to find a solution together.\u2019<\/h4>\n

Small steps, but more must be done.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

All these are arguably positive steps.<\/h4>\n

It is certainly positive that France as a state is attempting to come to terms with the terrible acts it committed in its colonial era, and that Malagasy people may be able to take an important step towards vindication and justice for their oppression \u2013 and worse \u2013 as a colony.<\/h4>\n

And the commitments to education, agriculture, energy and other things in Madagascar are all welcome, and heartening in an era in which many states, including the US, are ditching development funding.<\/h4>\n

However, we should note that some of this funding is in the form of loans, which will need to be paid back, and however favourable the terms, Madagascar is one of the world\u2019s poorest nations.<\/h4>\n

Malagasy people urgently need the capacity \u2013 including funding \u2013 to be able to create and carry out their own solutions to the challenges they face, including poverty, hunger, the impacts of climate catastrophe (itself the result of activity by far wealthier states than their own) and the ongoing devastation of their environment.<\/h4>\n

But that funding \u2013 or at least the materials and skills training necessary to help make these things happen \u2013 must come from somewhere. And it cannot be in the form of loans which will tie Madagascar into debt for generations to come.<\/h4>\n

We are working hard to provide this, and we need your ongoing help to make it happen, but we also call on politicians across the world to step up and offer Madagascar real, material assistance to enable Malagasy people to escape poverty and live the lives we all deserve.<\/h4>\n

Macron\u2019s promises \u2013 whether made because of a French feeling of guilt, a hope France will gain a return on its investment, or a genuine commitment to help \u2013 are a welcome step in the right direction.<\/h4>\n

But they are not enough on their own, and they come with potentially damaging future outcomes.<\/h4>\n

Please do share this message, donate to our work if you can, and\/or contact your political representative to ask for action on Madagascar, its people and its environment.<\/h4>\n

Thank you.<\/h4>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miala tsiny fa tsy mbola misy amin’ny teny malagasy ity lahatsoratra ity. French President Emmanuel Macron and his Malagasy counterpart Andry Nirina Rajoelina have agreed and announced a series of agreements on education, agriculture and energy, as well as one promising a joint study of a massacre in which some believe 200,000 Malagasy people were killed by French soldiers and politicians. We welcome the development initiatives \u2013 and hope the \u2018commission of historians\u2019 helps the families of the massacre\u2019s victims learn more about what happened and how, and to gain some resolution in their fight for justice \u2013 but note… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":22398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[206,309,441,270,235,194,190,208,195,418,419,220,260,234,310,207,238,221,239,429,236,237,430,187,188,289,261,432,168,431,201,218],"tags":[444,215,227,263,439,442,115,205,436,375,443],"class_list":["post-22436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-aid","category-children-for-life","category-climate","category-community","category-conservation","category-construction","category-daf","category-development","category-dynamic-agro-forestry","category-dynamic-agroforestry","category-education","category-education-for-life","category-environment","category-equality","category-farming","category-finance","category-food","category-forest","category-france","category-livelihoods","category-loans","category-macron","category-madagascar","category-malagasy","category-poverty","category-protecting-and-enabling-vulnerable-children","category-rajoelina","category-rfl","category-scattered-islands","category-trade","category-vulnerable-children","tag-children-for-the-future","tag-development","tag-education","tag-education-for-life","tag-france","tag-macron","tag-madagascar","tag-malagasy","tag-rajoelina","tag-resilient-forests-and-livelihoods","tag-solar-united-madagascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/mg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/mg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/mg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/mg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/mg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22436"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/mg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22439,"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/mg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22436\/revisions\/22439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/mg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/mg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/mg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/mg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}