Joëlle Ravelomanantsoa, an energy transition advocate from Madagascar, was among the participants of the 2025 Africa Regional Extractive Industries Knowledge Hub (AFREIKH) Summer School in Accra, organised by the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) in partnership with the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI).
Reflecting on her experience, she highlighted the importance of reframing resource governance and drew inspiration from a session on Africa Beyond Aid: Financing Africa’s Energy Transition, where Dr. Olufunso Somorin urged participants to “see resources as seeds, not bread.”
For her, the lesson underscored the need to treat natural wealth as an intergenerational investment that must benefit future generations, not just immediate national budgets.
Her reflections carry weight given Madagascar’s strategic position in the global energy transition. The island nation is rich in transition minerals and hydrocarbons, making it both a critical supplier to global markets and a testing ground for inclusive governance.
According to her, the Ambatovy project alone produces about 60,000 tons of refined nickel and 5,600 tons of cobalt annually, accounting for nearly 30% of the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
In addition, the QMM/Rio Tinto project at Fort Dauphin generates around 750,000 tons of ilmenite each year, while Madagascar’s southern and eastern regions export over 40,000 tons of graphite for global battery supply chains.
Beyond minerals, Madagascar holds 1.7 billion barrels of heavy oil in Tsimiroro and an estimated 16.6 billion barrels of bitumen in Bemolanga.
These resources place the country at the heart of global demand for transition minerals but also expose it to pressing governance challenges, community rights, environmental justice, and equitable revenue management.
For Joëlle, the mission is clear: to help ensure that resource extraction translates into sustainable, transparent, and inclusive development for Madagascar’s people.
Profile
Joëlle Ravelomanantsoa is an economist with a Master’s degree in Public and Environmental Economics from the University of Antananarivo. She joined Transparency International Initiative Madagascar (TI-MG) in 2020 and became Executive Secretary of Publish What You Pay Madagascar (PCQVP MG) in 2021.
She now serves as TI-MG’s Energy Transition Project Officer, where she leads initiatives on transition minerals, energy transition, and climate finance transparency. Her work focuses on building public awareness, engaging stakeholders, and promoting collaborative advocacy to align the country’s energy transition with social, environmental, and economic goals.
Regionally, she represents PCQVP Madagascar in the Transition Minerals Working Group under Publish What You Pay (PWYP) International’s Just Minerals Africa campaign, and contributes to the African Coalition on Green Minerals, bringing civil society and communities together to push for a just and equitable energy transition across the continent.
