From Youth Ecopreneur to Minister
Max Fontaine was a young green entrepreneur in Madagascar, who became a finalist in ITC’s youth ecopreneur awards. Shortly after he became Madagascar’s youngest ever minister and will now lead the country’s delegation at COP29.
The last year has been a whirlwind for Max Fontaine.
Twelve months ago, he was a green entrepreneur in his native Madagascar focusing on reforestation. As a result he was selected by the International Trade Centre as one of the standout young ecopreneurs of the year, joining the organization’s delegation at COP28 climate talks in Dubai.
Today, he’s become Madagascar’s youngest-ever Minister, in the portfolio of Environment and Sustainable Development. He will lead his country’s delegation at the upcoming COP29, in Baku.
‘My state of mind hasn’t changed. It’s the same as before. I’m focused on working to bring impact to the country,’ he says.
‘I was really advocating to put the youth at the decision-making table. Now, I have the opportunity to do it, at a national level, influencing 29 million people. This is the biggest change I feel from now being a minister.’
And he adds: ‘But now that I’m in charge, I have no room for excuses. I need to prove now that when you put the youth at the decision table, we can deliver concrete actions and results.’
Career path
Fontaine attracted the attention of ITC with his work leading Bôndy, a Malagasy small business he
co-founded in 2019, with a focus on land and forest restoration, working in partnership with local communities.
Some of its projects are dedicated to tackling the loss of soil fertility or restoring thousands of hectares of mangrove forests.
Bôndy’s work had already caught the eye of different UN bodies as well as the World Bank, when Fontaine became a finalist at the ITC Youth Ecopreneur Awards for 2023, in Ulaanbaatar.
‘Most of the youth ecopreneurs I met in Ulaanbaatar I later met again in different places around the world. In Dubai, New York, Nairobi or Geneva. It’s a network that I will have for the rest of my life.’
The ITC Youth Ecopreneurs finalists in 2023 included entrepreneurs from Bangladesh, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia and Mongolia.
‘We’ve exchanged experiences, advice and good practices in our fields. The experience definitely broadened my network.’
A few months later, Fontaine received the call from Malagasy President Andry Rajoelina to join his cabinet, making him the youngest minister in the country’s history.
Green plans
‘I’ve seen many things that I wanted to change if I ever had the opportunity to do it, and now I can,’ says Fontaine.
One of the main shifts Fontaine is leading on, supported by President Rajoelina, is to move away from what he defines is the ‘victim country’ position to showing itself as a ‘solution country,’ seeking financial backing from international financial institutions based on the environmental policy reforms introduced to implement climate actions.
‘We have worked since January with the International Monetary Fund on a programme of 12 environmental reforms to obtain financial support of $327 million, approved by its board last June.’
Access to finance will be on the agenda at COP29. The negotiations will try to achieve a global financial commitment that backs the efforts to keep global warming under 1.5 degree Celsius each year, as signed in the Paris Agreement.
According to the minister, the cost of implementation of the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution is close to $2.2 billion, but the country only obtained about a third of that.
‘The message we’ll be taking to COP29 is that Madagascar is taking its own risks for the environment, in terms of reforms and projects. But that we need partners to take the risk with us to invest and build projects,’ says Fontaine.
‘Madagascar has unique biodiversity, if we lose this then the whole world will suffer.’
