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Madagascar
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Off Africa's southeast coast in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar is the world's fourth largest island after Greenland, New Guinea, and Borneo. A stunning diversity of plant and animal species found nowhere else evolved after the island broke away from the African continent 165 million years ago. It has a mountainous central plateau and coastal plains. The first settlers were of African and Asian origin, and 18 separate ethnic groups emerged, derived from an African and Malayo-Indonesian mixture. Asian features are most predominant in the central highlands people, and coastal people tend to show features of African origin. Most of the population depend on subsistence farming, based on rice and cattle, with coffee, vanilla, and seafood being important exports.
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Madagascar's sources of growth are tourism; textile and light manufacturing exports (notably through the EPZs); agricultural products and mining. Madagascar is the world's leading producer of vanilla and accounts for about half the world's export market. Tourism targets the niche eco-tourism market, capitalising on Madagascar's unique biodiversity, unspoiled natural habitats, national parks and lemur species. Exports from the EPZs, located around Antananarivo and Antsirabe, consist the most part of garment manufacture, targeting the US market under AGOA and the European markets under the Everything But Arms (EBA) agreement. Agricultural exports consist of low-volume high-value products like vanilla, litchies and essential oils. A small but growing part of the economy is based on mining of ilmenite, with investments emerging in recent years, particularly near Tulear and Fort Dauphin.[16] Mining corporation Rio Tinto expects to begin operations near Fort Dauphin in 2008, following several years of infrastructure preparation.
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Having discarded past socialist economic policies, Madagascar has since the mid 1990s followed a World Bank and IMF led policy of privatization and liberalization. This strategy has placed the country on a slow and steady growth path from an extremely low level. Agriculture, including fishing and forestry, is a mainstay of the economy, accounting for more than one-fourth of GDP and employing four-fifths of the population. Exports of apparel have boomed in recent years primarily due to duty-free access to the United States. Deforestation and erosion, aggravated by the use of firewood as the primary source of fuel are serious concerns. President RAVALOMANANA has worked aggressively to revive the economy following the 2002 political crisis, which triggered a 12% drop in GDP that year.
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Madagascar has five distinct climates zones. Broadly speaking, Madagascar lies in the Southern Hemisphere with a tropical climate. Expect dry winter months from April to October and wetter and hotter summer months from December to March. Whale watching season is from July to September when humpback whales come into the St Marie channel to mate and give birth. A stay at the Princess Bora Lodge in St Marie gives you a unique chance to take part in the observation and preservation of humpback whales in the Indian Ocean.
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Islam in Madagascar constitutes about 7% of the population. The Muslim traders who first brought Islam in the 10th century had a deep influence on the west coast. For example, many Malagasy converted to Islam and the Malagasy language was, for the first time, transcribed into an alphabet, based on the Arabic alphabet, called Sorabe. Muslims are concentrated in the provinces of Mahajanga and Antsiranana (Diego Suarez). Muslims are divided between those of Malagasy ethnicity, Indo-Pakistanis, and Comorians. The number of mosques in the south-east region has increased from 10 to 50 in the last ten years.[22] Recently, there has been some growth in Islam through conversion.
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The Development Challenge: The Government of Madagascar (GOM), led by President Marc Ravalomanana, is engaged in an ambitious effort to address the country's immense development challenges. Stricken with widespread poverty and endemic corruption, Madagascar has an average per capita income of only $255; 70% of its population lives below the poverty line; 49% of children under five years of age are malnourished; rates of child mortality of 84 per 1,000 live births and maternal mortality of 488 per 100,000 live births are unacceptably high; life expectancy is only 55 years; HIV prevalence is 1.1%; the annual population growth rate is high at 2.8%; and, 46% of the population is illiterate. The projected 2004 real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 5.3% is considerably less than the 9.6% growth rate achieved last year. Overall macroeconomic management has been sound, but the economy was buffeted by a rapid depreciation of the currency in early 2004 and rising world prices for rice and petroleum products, resulting in a projected inflation rate of 27%. In mid-2004, Madagascar reached the Completion Point under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC), resulting in extensive cancellation of sovereign debt ($1.9 billion U.S. dollars). Based on sound economic, governance, and social investment indicators, Madagascar was selected as one of the first 16 countries worldwide eligible to receive Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) funding.
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