French Development Agency
Nicolas Le Guen
Director of the Malagasy agency
Madagascar faces significant vulnerabilities (climate change, rural poverty, insularity). How does AFD ensure that its financing contributes to long-term structural transformation?
AFD has been supporting Madagascar and its people for more than 70 years. While the country’s economic and social vulnerabilities are deeply rooted, we have adapted our operations to take into account the impacts of climate change and chronic underinvestment in public services.
As France’s public development bank, our role is to support the authorities in designing fiscally sustainable public policies that deliver tangible benefits for the population, while also helping to finance their implementation.
Madagascar is currently facing an exceptional situation: its main macroeconomic and social indicators are deteriorating, whereas, outside countries affected by conflict, these indicators are generally improving. Together with the international financial institutions and our European partners, our ambition is to support this transition so that Madagascar can ultimately return to sustainable growth and provide quality public services across the country.
AFD finances several career guidance, employment and self-employment projects (Tremplin MAD, MAMOA and Cap sur l’Emploi) implemented by IECD. How do these projects fit within AFD’s strategy in Madagascar? And how do they turn today’s challenges into concrete employment opportunities for young people and entrepreneurs?
Creating opportunities for Madagascar’s young people is one of our key priorities. This is reflected in the development of training programmes that respond to labour market needs and the expectations of employers, while also matching young people’s skills and aspirations.
In an economy that remains largely informal, with around 90% of jobs in the informal sector, IECD has successfully built strong partnerships with private sector companies to identify workforce needs, develop training programmes tailored to young people’s skill levels and promote a strong entrepreneurial mindset.
The outstanding employability of graduates from IECD-supported training institutions, together with the positive feedback received from employers, clearly demonstrates the relevance and effectiveness of this approach.
In an increasingly constrained context, how do you see the partnership between AFD and local Malagasy stakeholders (civil society organisations, businesses and local authorities) evolving?
While new constraints—particularly budgetary ones—are affecting our work, our resources and those of our partners, we remain fully committed to our mission of reducing global inequalities.
Alongside the European Union, which remains the world’s largest provider of official development assistance, France will continue its efforts by working closely with its longstanding partners, including public institutions, civil society organisations, businesses and local authorities.
New financing approaches and instruments are currently being explored, and AFD will continue to adapt and evolve to meet emerging development challenges.
How could this partnership evolve towards greater co-creation and stronger capacity building with local stakeholders?
This is at the very heart of AFD’s approach. We work in response to requests from local stakeholders, supporting them in identifying needs and designing solutions that are tailored to their context.
There is, of course, room for further improvement. We could strengthen our approach by involving civil society organisations, consulting firms and local stakeholders even more closely, particularly during the project identification and appraisal phases, in order to encourage greater co-creation and knowledge transfer.
What additional role could IECD play in the future to support youth employment and local economic development in Madagascar?
IECD could further strengthen its role in supporting public authorities by helping to shape more realistic public policies that are aligned with the financial and human capacities of public institutions.
It could also continue expanding its support to both for-profit and non-profit private sector organisations, whose flexibility enables them to respond more effectively to labour market needs.
The strong connection IECD creates between young people, skills development and employment is one of its defining strengths. This unique expertise is highly valued by AFD and by the wider community of development partners operating in Madagascar.