300 SECONDS with Joan Razafimaharo
Architect and Co-founder of the “Solidarité Madagascar” initiative in Madagascar. She tells us about her approach towards sustainable urban planning in Madagascar.
We sat down with Joan Razafimaharo for an extended 300 SECONDS to find out about her approach towards sustainable urban planning in Madagascar. She is also a co-founder of the “Solidarité Madagascar” initiative, which has managed to deliver 3,600 donations to vulnerable people across five cities in Madagascar.
CAN YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF AND WHAT YOU DO?
My name is Joan Razafimaharo, I am an Architect living in Madagascar. I build institutional buildings such as Court houses, Banks and recently healthcare facilities.
WHY ARCHITECTURE AND ADVOCACY?
I wanted to become an architect very early, which is quite difficult because we do not have Architectural schools in Madagascar, as in a lot of African countries. Although my family wanted me to be an Engineer, I was constantly told I wasn’t good at maths and drawing at the French school I attended, there was little help. I eventually managed to go to Canada. I worked and studied there for 13 years and eventually got back to Madagascar in 2012. The return was not easy because as compared to my experience in Canada, the doors were not opening in Madagascar. People who hire were initially not aware of my work, hence why I got into advocacy as well.
HOW DID YOUR CAREER START?
It’s really difficult to practice architecture in Canada because you have to intern for 500,800,80 hours, pass an exam and also have a mentor. So, at the end of the process, it was great but my husband wanted to go back to Madagascar and I also wanted a change of environment. Coming back to Madagascar was another start for me because the same opportunities that existed in Canada did not exist. I had to start all over again because I did not have the network as easily as in Canada so it was really difficult.
IN LIGHT OF THE CHALLENGES THAT EXIST IN MADAGASCAR, SUCH AS UNEMPLOYMENT AND POVERTY, WHICH WERE HEIGHTENED BY COVID 19, CAN YOU TELL ME HOW YOUR WORK WITH SOLIDARITÉ MADAGASCAR HAS HELPED YOUR COMMUNITY?
Solidarité Madagascar was a spontaneous initiative created by Malagasy residence and also those in the diaspora. We were worried about the impact of the lockdown on both the poor and the elderly. Because the lockdown was so sudden, we managed to call for support and donations. Many people in Madagascar and in the diaspora contributed food and money. There was a lot of solidarity within the people of Madagascar. We managed to help around 3000 people in the major towns in Madagascar. In Antananarivo, the capital city and the biggest town, we asked associations and institutions such as the….. municipality and asked them to give us a list of things to give. At first, it was very amateurish because we are not professionals, we are not the red cross or the government – we just wanted to distribute masks and rice but it kept getting bigger and bigger. When we went to other towns, we wanted other organisations to get involved, in the end we were about 30 or 50 members in the group. We did not know each other at first, we mostly met on Facebook. However, we did not want the organisation to last long, it was created for a specific purpose and such initiatives are not made to be sustainable because we just wanted to help our neighbours and elders. It lasted for about 6 months.
DO YOU THINK THE ORGANISATION SHOULD BE SUSTAINED TO HELP TACKLE THE CHALLENGES YOUR COUNTRY FACES WITH POVERTY, REGARDLESS OF THE FACT THAT IT WAS SET UP SPECIFICALLY TO ASSIST DURING THE LOCKDOWN?
We were thinking of making it formal, especially because we had two lockdowns. However, that was not the intention from inception because we all have individual careers and we really did not know each other. We had some level of trust in the institutions and in existing organisations to do the job the right way. We created another outreach, which was the Solidarite Soignants for healthcare givers. We wanted to help caregivers all over Madagascar because there was not much focus on them. If we wanted to do something more sustainable, it would be in helping already existing communities by giving them visibility. But generally, we wanted to keep our work informal.
YOU MENTIONED YOUR TRANSITION FROM CANADA TO MADAGASCAR, CAN YOU TELL US SOME OF THE CHALLENGES YOU FACED COMING BACK HOME IN TERMS OF SEEKING OPPORTUNITIES AS AN ARCHITECT.
When you plan to go back to your home country, you don’t really have a plan of action. I think when you strategise too much you get really disappointed. You end up improvising and trusting your guts. What kept me going on was the way I was trained in Canada to work with integrity and keep ethics. Here in Madagascar, if you want to get opportunities or jobs, you are faced with corruption which is not great for your state of mind. I did accept a position with the government, but it only lasted for 6 months. However, I am still very grateful for those 6 months, it was the best way to learn how challenging making an impact can be.
My best advice is to go with the flow, help people if you can. Right now, I have a firm that has about 20 staff, I believe I give great salaries, which in turn helps their families. It’s one of the ways I give back to the community.
YOU HAVE WORKED ON MANY ADVOCACY PROJECTS PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING. WHAT MOTIVATES YOU TO PURSUE THESE PROJECTS?
I want to change the way we work here; this is because doing sustainable designs in Africa is really worrisome. For example, in my firm, we were hired to apply sustainable techniques in a building but the engineers in our team were not going along with it. So even when a client wants to become more sustainable, it’s difficult because the way people are trained here is different. I try my best to integrate it into all my commissions. However, I have commercial projects and very high profile clients. In fact it is impossible to evolve in developing countries without getting these kind of commissions. However, I really want to change people’s approach to work, that is why I am giving classes to engineers and architects in project design and management. It is my way of giving back and training the next generation.
WHAT LESSONS HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM NAVIGATING THE CHALLENGES AND PUSH BACK FACED IN PURSUING YOUR PROJECTS?
You have to be a good citizen first. Everything you put up on social media and websites will stay forever but if you do not actually do the work on the ground, everything will stay the same and people will never change the way they live or the way they do things. In the spaces I work in, I get summoned very loudly and often because there is also a generational problem. People from my parent’s generation are not very keen on seeing me outspoken and this has affected the availability of certain contracts to me. So, I’ll say for young people, we need to work harder because most young people want fast gratification, which has to change.
ARE THERE OTHER BARRIERS YOU HAVE ENCOUNTERED IN TRYING TO MAKE AN IMPACT?
In Madagascar, people do not like to share information. When you are working for institutions, you encounter a lot of trouble trying to get the right information. Even when you get information, it takes a very long time, which is not an efficient way to work. So, the greatest barrier is not even corruption, it is the way people work.
DO THESE BARRIERS/CHALLENGES EXIST IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PRIVATE SECTOR?
Of course. In Madagascar, we say atavique, which means it is inherited from the older generations, the colonial era and socialism- it exists everywhere. At first, when I arrived in Madagascar and I wanted to find jobs and contract, they told me to go to the ministry and wait for documentation, I waited for hours before they responded to me.
ARE THERE SPECIFIC CHALLENGES YOU ENCOUNTER BECAUSE YOU ARE A WOMAN IN THAT FIELD?
When you are young and starting your career, you have limitations and in Madagascar, it is really heavy. The first time I wanted to be a volunteer architect I met an architect who said ‘you have four kids; how come you are here to work?’. Which was quite strange. I have been an architect for 7 years now in Madagascar and I have great jobs and I have been in many provinces. There isn’t that much disgust now because I have proven that I can balance both my family and job. But the men, elders and women who still have a traditional mindset, are still a problem.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR ASPIRATIONS FOR YOUR COUNTRY AND THE CONTINENT?
When I was in North America, people thought Africa was just one country. When I mentioned Madagascar, they thought it was a town. Africa has a multitude of cultures and individuality; we work in different ways. Madagascar is really isolated because it is an island also because of the language and culture. We have the same problems across Africa and we have to come to terms with the fact that we are making mistakes in fixing those problems. There are a lot of people in the diaspora who can contribute to the continent’s development. Although it is a great sacrifice to give back, it is important.
