President Ravalomanana was re-elected by a clear majority in December 2006 and is continuing his push for development, with the stated aim of reducing the proportion living below the poverty line (currently nearly 70%) to 50% of the population by 2012.

The latest estimated figure for the total population (July 2006) is 18.5 million. Forty years ago it was 7 million. The 2006 United Nations Development Report on national wealth ranks Madagascar 143rd out of 177 countries. This means that it is no longer among the ten poorest nations in the world, but despite this some 40% of Malagasy children are underweight and showing signs of stunted growth due to malnutrition.
Only 3% of rural households have access to safe water.

The Good News
1) Madagascar is considered by the EU to be one of the best performing countries in recent years and, as a result, has been awarded European Development Funding of over £280 million for the period 2008 - 2013.
2) The USA has recently agreed to give the equivalent of £48 million for programmes dealing with the environment, rural development, education and good governance.
3) Madagascar is recognised for producing one of the best chocolates in the world! The Malagasy Mora Mora chocolate bar won a silver medal at the Academy of Chocolate award ceremony in London last October, and is the world's first equitrade product, being wholly made in Madagascar. It can be bought in most health food shops, who can order it from Suma Foods, and in larger branches of Waitrose.

The Bad News
Cyclone Clovis has caused considerable damage in Mananjary and Nosy Varika on the east coast. The rice was within two weeks of harvest and up to 40% of the crop has been lost in Mananjary and over 90% in Nosy Varika. Over 1000 people were made homeless.

There is hunger in the south due to a prolonged drought and now floods. The World Food Programme's stocks are low but they expect that food aid will be needed by about 300,000 people for the next few months.

Unfortunately, several more violent storms have ravaged the island since Clovis, leaving 20,000 people homeless - the most recent cyclone happened on 17th March 2007. That particular storm brought down phone lines in many parts of the country and we only heard about it when one of the Charity's Trustees received an urgent text message on her mobile phone! Many crops have been destroyed and roads and bridges damaged. Happily, we have been able to send £22,000 to our partners in Madagascar for immediate cyclone relief. Most of this money will be used to provide immediate food aid and to buy motorised canoes in order to reach remote villages cut off by the floods, but some will be used to give resettlement grants to refugees who have been living in tents but are now starting to return to their homes - if they have any homes left to go to.