Richard J. Randriamandrato: 5 interesting facts about Madagascar candidate in AUC race

As the African Union Commission (AUC) election draws near, the chairmanship race received a new twist following a position taken by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) urging its member states to support former Madagascar Foreign Affairs Minister Richard Randriamandrato.

SADC through its Executive Secretary, Elias Magosi, confirmed Madagascar’s formal request for regional support, emphasizing that Randriamandrato remains the only candidate from the bloc.

The request for the 16 countries to back Randriamandrato raised the stake in the race as it was earlier pitted to be a closely contested race between Kenya’s candidate Raila Odinga and Mahamoud Ali Youssouf of Djibouti.

With Randriamandrato getting a last-minute boost ahead of Saturday, February 15, 2025 elections, here are some interesting facts about the Madagasy candidate:

Mentored by Kenyan at COMESA

Randriamandrato is a specialist in international politics and issues relating to regional and continental integration. Just like Raila, the Madagasy candidate boasts of great experience in the local and international arena.

Part of his achievement which he highlighted while presenting his CV to the African Union was his working stint with The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), an economic organization that includes 21 African countries.

In his CV, Randriamandrato argued that his tour of duty at COMESA allowed him to interact with people from different nations and handle delicate missions. However, close mentorship helped him to manoeuvre.

Interestingly, Randriamandrato mentioned a Kenyan, Erastus Mwencha, who served as Secretary General of COMESA and Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission, as a professional with whom they worked together and could attest to his expertise.

Mwencha served as COMESA Secretary General from May 1998 to April 2008. He represented the region in negotiating the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs) with the European Union (EU), and the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization, as well as in promoting the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for the benefit of the region’s stakeholders.

Previously, he served in various capacities including Acting Secretary General, Director of Industry, Energy and Environment and Senior Industrial Expert in the same organisation.

“My 10 years at COMESA allowed me to work with staff from different cultural backgrounds who had to evolve together. I was able to appreciate how important the role of the leader was, in this case, the Secretary General of COMESA, Mr. Erastus Mwencha (Kenya) and Sindiso Ngwenya (Zimbabwe) with whom I was I’ve worked with directly and who knew how to distribute responsibilities and entrust delicate missions to management personnel. I’ve learned from them how to create the right environment for distributed leadership at COMESA’s management level,” he said in his CS submitted to AU.

Architect of post-privatisation reforms

Randriamandrato also played a significant role in the development of Madagascar. As early as 1998, he was serving his country in a key position.

In that year, he was appointed Director of Cabinet at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before joining COMESA as Director of Strategic Planning and Research from 2001 to 2009.

After his COMESA stint, he went back to serve the nation where is recognised among architects of the post-privatisation reforms.

He was a member of the government of Madagascar as Minister of Economy and Finance from 2019 to 2021 before being appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2022.

The former minister negotiated and concluded an Extended Credit Facility with the IMF, which enabled Madagascar to launch numerous infrastructure projects and development programmes as part of President Rajoelina’s Initiative for the Emergence of Madagascar.

“Throughout my career as a minister, my objectives were on one hand to develop talents and to grant confidence based on cross-skills of teams. Be it at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance (2019-2021) with 10,000 agents, of the Foreign Affairs (2021) with 300 agents, I have managed moments of tension. I have experienced successes but also failures during crises such as during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“On the other hand, discretion being a quality required in diplomacy, I have set myself the objective of respecting divergent points of view including with the President of the Republic. I believe that the basic diplomatic skills I’ve acquired, informational, relational and operational, will be an asset in leading the AU Commission,” the former minister said in his CV.

Multi-lingual

Just like other candidates, Randriamandrato commands a deep understanding of English and French. As indicated in his CS, he can not only write fluently but also read and speak in those two languages.

Pro-free trade agenda

Having worked for different organisations, Randriamandrato has a pro-free trade policy which he even pushed during the Mjadala debate.

On top of his agenda, Randriamandrato vowed to liberate the continent from trade barriers citing his success in IMF and World Bank negotiations for his country.

“I’m an economist and a finance person. First of all, to develop the economy at the continental level, we need to develop trade through liberation,” he said during the AUC Mjadala debate.

“In theory, trade can effectively become a source of economic dynamism.”

Randriamandrato noted that trade between European Union countries, for instance, goes up to 50 per cent, more than double that of African countries.

“Trade between African countries is at 12.6 per cent which is very low,” he explained.

He promised to ensure free trade happens as soon as possible if he clinches the AUC chairperson’s seat.

Academician

Randriamandrato boasts of academic credentials from different parts of the globe.

After completing his higher education in France, where he obtained a first degree in political science with a major in international relations from the Institut d’Études Politiques d’Aix-en-Provence, he joined the Centre des Relations Internationales et Stratégique at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), where he obtained a master’s degree in international politics (1991).

In 1999, he was awarded a grant from the US Congress for a professional development programme at American University (Washington, D.C.), a stay which enabled him to follow a number of courses at the University. the Executive Program in International Finance at Georgetown University, School of Business in Washington DC.

He has also published different works which have been cited by World Bank and IMF in there various projects across the continent.