The vertical hoist band on Madagascar's national flag is white. It is positioned beside two equal horizontal bands: red above and green below, creating a distinctive three-part design.
Madagascar's flag was selected by a technical commission on 15 October 1958 and officially adopted on 21 October, shortly after the Malagasy Republic was proclaimed. The design is credited to Andrianome Ranaivosoa, an agent of the Malagasy National Geographic Institute. It remained unchanged through later changes of government and constitution, including independence from France in 1960.
The colors have accumulated several interpretations. At adoption, white was described as purity, red as sovereignty, and green as hope. Later official explanations associated white with freedom, security, and cleanliness; red with national unity and the island's historic monarchies; and green with hope, vegetation, and Madagascar's coastal regions.
A frequent error is to treat the flag as a horizontal tricolor. Only the red and green sections are horizontal. The white section is a vertical band on the hoist side—the side nearest the flagpole—not on the fly side.