Madagascar is one of those countries whose hard-won independence sparked great hopes, only to be followed by immense disappointment. This country of 587,040 km², home to over 30 million people, possesses enormous human and natural assets that, if managed intelligently and efficiently, would have placed it among Africa's most prosperous nations.
Eric Topona, journalist at Deutsche Welle (DW). Madagascar is not merely rich in soil and subsoil. The country boasts rare biodiversity, unique in some aspects, strategic raw materials essential to current global technological competition, considerable fishery resources in quality and quantity, and extraordinary tourism potential. The "Great Island" also enjoys exceptional geopolitical advantages, situated at the confluence of the Indian Ocean, Africa, and the Indo-Pacific zone. Due to this central geographic position, Madagascar is indispensable for all maritime traffic along the Mozambique Channel, a shipping route through which essential goods and merchandise for global commerce transit.
Economic and Social Indicators in Crisis
Economic and social indicators remain alarming. Madagascar is classified among low-income countries, with a per capita GDP estimated at $549 USD in 2024. Poverty remains high, with over 80% of the population living below the extreme poverty threshold of less than $2.15 USD per day. This poverty rate persists due to weak long-term real GDP per capita growth, poor agricultural sector performance, weak human capital, limited formal job creation capacity, and recurring climate shocks. Inequalities are also significant. The Human Development Index (HDI) remains very low at 0.487. In 2022, the country ranked 177th out of 194. Yet the country lacks neither resources nor talent. What it lacks is a value creation model capable of sustainably transforming its natural wealth into national prosperity. Why does Madagascar struggle to sustainably drive economic development commensurate with its immense potential? Why do essential indicators, particularly human development, place this country far below living standards that its increasingly young, dynamic, and ambitious population rightfully expects?
Returning to Strategic Choices
To understand Madagascar's concerning stagnation, one must examine the economic choices and strategies implemented from the country's earliest independence years. They focused on industrial policy aimed at transforming certain agricultural raw materials and producing common consumer goods locally. Emblematic enterprises, such as Savonnerie Tropicale, created in the late 1960s, symbolized the emergence of a productive sector capable of locally transforming the country's resources and creating skilled jobs. In the country's south, for example, the National Oil Company of Toliara (Tuléar) SNHU was created for oil production, Société Sud Madagascar Textile (Sumatex) specialized in textile industry, and Hasyma (former Malagasy national cotton management company, created in 1972 based on French company CFDT, later privatized in the 2000s and dissolved around 2007) dedicated to processing cotton industry resources. In Mahajanga, on the northwest coast near the Mozambique Channel, the city's textile company was simultaneously a jewel of the country's industrialization process and local transformation of its natural resources.
Companies Forced to Close
According to statistics from the Syndicate of Industries of Madagascar (SIM), in 2010, 21% of its member companies were forced to close. Those maintaining operations laid off nearly half their workforce. The syndicate's president, Stéphane Hery Raveloson, declared then: "In fact, the economy in general is in a vicious circle of self-destruction because industry has always been a source of job creation and added value as well as induced economic activities."
Aligning with Global Evolution
This bleak picture, whose economic and human consequences persist to this day, is not inevitable. As in many promising African economies during those prosperous years, management of people and wealth was marked by certain amateurism and shortcomings in governance.