Holistically Alleviating Poverty in Madagascar

In Madagascar’s Anosy region, poverty and environmental degradation are connected. Coastal communities, where 91% of households live below the poverty line, rely almost entirely on small-scale fisheries for income. Overfishing and climate change have led to a dramatic 90% decline in lobster stocks since 1990, impacting livelihoods and increasing vulnerability. SEED Madagascar’s Project Oratsimba addresses these challenges by linking sustainable marine management with poverty alleviation efforts.

Project Oratsimba aims to alleviate poverty by empowering communities to sustainably manage marine resources through the establishment of Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs). These LMMAs, covering 31,000 hectares, promote sustainable fishing practices that help restore lobster populations, ensuring a stable income source for 15,000 people. By involving local Marine Management Committees (MMCs), the project ensures that community members actively participate in resource management, building local ownership and fostering long-term sustainability.

To further alleviate poverty, SEED has established new savings groups and provided financial literacy training to fishing households. These measures equip community members with the skills to manage income fluctuations, reducing reliance on unsustainable fishing practices during lean periods. Project Oratsimba’s holistic approach goes beyond immediate income generation by diversifying livelihoods. The project is exploring sustainable supplementary livelihoods to provide alternative income sources, helping families move out of poverty.

Moving forward, SEED will expand LMMAs to two more communities, enhancing governance structures and increasing community capacity. By integrating conservation and economic development, Project Oratsimba tackles the root causes of poverty, creating a path towards long-term resilience and financial independence for Madagascar’s coastal communities.

By addressing both environmental and economic needs, Project Oratsimba highlights SEED’s mission of holistic poverty alleviation, ensuring that communities have the resources and skills to sustainably lift themselves out of poverty.

Without systems like health insurance in place, it is common for people in low-income countries like Madagascar to face health shocks. These health shocks are a primary contributor to households falling into poverty and serve as the beginning of a vicious cycle in which health issues both contribute to and result from impoverishment. With this known, SEED views health projects as especially pertinent to alleviating poverty. 

SEED’s Votsira project aims to improve maternal and child health (MCH). With its emphasis on education, this project is focused on promoting proactive health. Votsira began in 2013 and has since completed four successful phases of implementation. These phases have involved partnering with the local health ministry and community health workers to provide MCH education sessions and household visits. In the process, SEED has also supported the MCH specialist training of medical practitioners to ensure medical knowledge is not a barrier to solving complex health issues. Over the last four phases, SEED has conducted approximately 2,156 MCH education sessions and 15,305 household visits, reaching 8,040 mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and mothers-to-be with essential maternal and child health information. 

In the most recent phase (IV), SEED Educated 940 caregivers on diarrhoea, self-medication, syphilis, and HIV and conducted 660 household visits to address caregivers’ individual needs. SEED also supported the delivery of vital childhood vaccinations, such as Polio and Tuberculosis, to 150 children across Fort Dauphin.The final goal of this phase was to improve access to family planning services. 175 individuals were able to access the contraceptive pill and injection.

Phase V of Votsira will continue to work towards educating the communities on MCH with an updated and tailored curriculum, as well as mobilise a MCH campaign across the region. This will be supplemented by more medical training and increased organisation collaboration.