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About Madagascar
The first 10 Teacher Training Volunteers arrived in Madagascar in September 1993. In August 1994, the Environmental project began with the arrival of the first 13 Environment Trainees. The Health project began in September 1995, and the Small Enterprise Development project in 2007. Since the program opened, almost 1,700 Americans have served as Peace Corps Volunteers in Madagascar.
Following the December 2001 presidential elections, the Peace Corps temporarily suspended its program in April 2002 due to social unrest. After a favorable security assessment in August of the same year, Volunteers returned to Madagascar in October 2002.
In early 2009, antigovernmental demonstrations occurred in the capital of Antananarivo and following a military coup, Peace Corps evacuated and temporarily suspended its program in Madagascar in March of 2009. In November 2009, 15 Volunteers were reinstated to Madagascar during a period of transitional government and in May of the following year the first official training class of 25 Volunteers was sworn in after the program re-opened.
Prior to the evacuation in 2020 due to COVID, Peace Corps Madagascar supported approximately 150 Volunteers, making it the fourth largest program in Africa.
Peace Corps Madagascar now focuses on three sectors supporting Madagascar’s expressed needs: Education, Health, and Agriculture. Volunteers in Madagascar work with students, teachers, and the larger community to improve their capacity to speak English, conduct health education and child survival activities, and increase community and household food security through natural resources management and climate-smart agricultural practices.
