Lila Ratsifandrihamanana

Lila Hanitra Ratsifandrihamanana (born 1959) is a Malagasy politician and diplomat. Ratsifandrihamanana was the Minister of Scientific Research from 1997 to 1998 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1998 to 2002. Ratsifandrihamanana resigned on February 27, 2002, amidst the political crisis that followed the December 2001 presidential election, because, according to her spokesperson, "she was personally in favour of comparing reports" regarding the electoral controversy. She then became ambassador to Senegal in 2002. In 2007 she became Permanent Representative of the African Union, Permanent Observer Mission of the African Union to the United Nations in New York. In 2009, she joined the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), as the Director of the Liaison Office with the UN in New York.

== Youth ==

Lila Hanitra Ratsifandrihamanana is the sixth child of Henri Ratsifandrihamanana (1921-1982), a Pediatric Doctor and a fervent political militant of the fight against colonialism, and Clarisse Andriamampandry Ratsifandrihamanana (1926-1987), eminent writer and poet, member of the Malagasy Academia and other national and international literary organizations.

== Studies... ==