Holistically Alleviating Poverty in Madagascar

The past few months have highlighted the severity of the impacts of climate change and severe droughts on crop survival and food security in Madagascar. Compounded by the economic impacts of COVID-19 and the worst drought since 1981, resulting in famine, there is an urgent need for the strengthening of sustainable livelihood strategies. Despite the challenges, SEED continues to respond flexibly and efficiently to the most critical needs of communities in the Anosy region.

This report features some of SEED’s recent achievements in the commitment to local ownership, whilst highlighting exciting innovations we have been working on. 

Sustainable Livelihoods

Project Mahampy

Working to increase income for female traditional weavers and sustainable resource management of the mahampy reedbeds, SEED aims to improve the livelihoods of rural women in Madagascar, whilst ensuring that the reedbeds upon which they rely are healthy. SEED supported the creation of a Weavers’ Cooperative Committee, constructing a workshop with input from Cooperative members for technical weaving skills training to be held. 

In response to the collapse of the tourism industry and the postponement of the values added product pilot due to COVID-19, project funds were partially reallocated into a menstrual hygiene management (MHM) pilot. Modelled after successful MHM projects implemented by SEED’s Community Health team, Project Mahampy sought to teach the women weavers how to create sustainable, low-cost menstrual hygiene products and deliver informal MHM informational sessions. Given the lack of access to MHM within the community, the pilot addressed period poverty by minimising the disruption of menstruation on their daily life and wellbeing. Members of the cooperatives found community in this work, receiving sustainable training on MHM and weaving production.

 “During our training, people are talking more openly about sex and menstruation. It has given the women an opportunity to talk to each other.” 

- Ravolasoa Jacqueline, President of the Taratsy Mahavotsy Mpandrary sub-cooperative

Community Health

Project Safidy 

Limited by the country’s under-resourced healthcare and education systems, Madagascar’s young people have few reliable options for sexual and reproductive health information. Safidy’s partnership with the Ministry of Education has ensured that a sexual health curriculum is interwoven across the Malagasy high school education system. This means topics such as gender equality, advocacy, rights, abuse, and consent would now become a part of high school courses such as biology, philosophy, and geography.

With endline surveys being conducted, this phase of integrating sexual health into the national curriculum is coming to an end. Currently, Project Safidy is moving toward expanding intensive SRHR teacher training to 250 teachers in 10 schools and launching the curriculum in Madagascar’s largest teacher-training university. With this solid base, moving forward, the goal is to grow the SRHR network by building locally-led partnerships with country donors and multilateral organisations to keep extending Safidy’s influence.

Education Infrastructure

Sekoly Emagnevy

In the last month, the SEED construction team has laid the foundation and now, Emagnevy Primary School's new classrooms are taking shape. The parents of some of Emagnevy Primary School's pupils decided to come along to our school building site to assist the Project Sekoly team. All morning these amazing parents helped to lay the foundations of not only SEED's newest school but also, in turn, their children’s education, well-being, and success. 

These two extra classrooms will allow all 286 students at Emagnevy to attend school full-time. This increased learning space will make a huge difference to the education of 60% of Emagnevy's pupils, who are currently only able to attend half days due to cramped conditions.

Sekoly Emagnevy is a special project for SEED because it is the first education infrastructure project that has offset the carbon footprint caused by transport, construction, and materials. Community-managed plantations will grow trees over the next 10 years, half of which will meet local demands and the other half of which will offset the carbon footprint of the school’s construction, paving the way for innovation in carbon offsetting in SEED’s future Sekoly projects.

Conservation Research

Project Sakondry 

With one of the highest rates of food insecurity globally, almost 70% of Madagascar’s population fall under the poverty line, and as a result of the impact of Covid-19, over 1.3 million people in Southern Madagascar will be unable to find enough food to eat today. Project Sakondry aims to provide households with materials and knowledge to farm insects (locally known as sakondry) for household consumption – intending to improve dietary diversity for more vulnerable households, especially for pregnant women and young children. The project also enables households to supplement income through the sale of sakondry, easing reliance on natural resources.

The Project Sakondry team has been at work training four female Community Ambassadors to assist with community training and to support 625 households by answering individual questions and concerns, helping families to successfully farm and harvest sakondry.

Project Sakondry stands as one of SEED’s most innovative projects, thriving despite the hardships of the pandemic and with intentions of expanding to over 600 households, supporting the food security of 2750 individuals.

2021 has so far been a tough year for all, exacerbated for countries with high levels of poverty and a vulnerable climate. Madagascar has been plagued by its worst drought in 40 years, leaving at least 1 million people in the face of starvation. SEED Madagascar has faced many challenges this year with COVID-19, severe drought, famine, and funding cuts. Our progress and achievements, however, have been remarkable. This report is a dedication and tribute to the staff and communities who have worked tirelessly to help SEED achieve incredible progress in their target areas of work, which has led to long-lasting positive change Malagasy communities. A summary of some key achievements in a selection of our projects is discussed below.

Sustainable Livelihoods

Project Ala: Moving into Phase II 

Unfortunately, the drought in Sainte Luce has caused extremely high mortality of plantings in the corridors. However, the Project Ala team has worked tirelessly to continue with the project and has worked with key stakeholders to focus on the main threats to the corridors, particularly fire. There is not a simple, one-size-fits-all way to restore forests, but scientists have found that projects that use a localised approach on an individual forest or community level have greater success than those that do not. SEED has created a five-year Conservation Programme Strategy and a 10 to 15 year Forest Conservation Programme Strategy which have helped to build a long-term, locally-led, holistic and adaptive programme for the conservation and restoration of the Sainte Luce Littoral Forests. These strategies have helped shape Ala Phase II by setting achievable goals for the next three years. Phase II has been developed to continue to grow SEED’s reforestation efforts and strengthen its vital research, by working together with key stakeholders and the local community in Sainte Luce. Over the coming years Project Ala will continue to monitor, learn and adapt through the dissemination of reports, learning and research. This, in turn, will add to the growing body of knowledge on reforestation in Madagascar.

Community Health

Safidy IV: Expanding SRHR networks 

Project Safidy aims to deliver rights-based sexual and reproductive health education and resources (SRHR) to young people across Madagascar, reducing their vulnerability to HIV, sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies, by partnering and working closely with ministries and partner organisations. Despite challenges with funding, Safidy IV has made some remarkable achievements in 2021. A social media strategy has been developed to boost the participation of SRHR network members in developing content to raise SRHR awareness in the wider community. The SRHR network currently has 31 members, of which 17 have contributed SRHR messages to be disseminated across various social media channels. A total of 100 teachers from five pilot schools have been trained to deliver SRHR education. An additional nine regional and district ministry officials have received capacity-building training to monitor SRHR in five schools. 

Education Infrastructure

Tsagnoriha School: on track to finish this August!

In the Anosy Region, where SEED Madagascar works, children don't have much chance of completing primary school. Through our education projects, SEED Madagascar aims to tackle this issue by building new schools, repairing existing buildings, providing furniture and facilities to schools that don't have enough, and supporting teachers to deliver high-quality education. Construction of Tsagnoriha school commenced in January 2021 and is well underway. The bridge on the commute to Tsagnoriha was broken, and community members moved 70 bags of cement from the bridge to Tsagnoriha and also transported sand from the river. In April, the team built the school foundations and, in May, the team was busy not only building the walls for the new classrooms but also building the pits for the new latrines. Tsagnoriha school is on track to finish this August and 188 students will have access to great classrooms, benches, toilets, and a water supply.

WASH in schools

Children in Vatambe: "We want to go to school to learn!"

In Vatambe, three new fully-furnished classrooms have been built, along with repairs to one other. SEED has installed one rainwater harvesting system, two gender-segregated latrines, one menstrual hygiene management facility, and two handwashing stations, enabling 230 students to safely attend school full-time annually. The children of Vatambe Primary School sung "We want to go to school to learn!" at the school’s official opening ceremony in late June, and that is exactly what they will now be able to do! Meet Donne, one of the skilled construction workers that built Vatambe Primary School. He proudly tells Lomba, our Head of Construction, that the salary he earned from building the school has meant that he has been able to buy two Zebu or 'Omby' in Malagasy. Omby represent power, status, and prosperity in Madagascar and have a distinct role of importance in society and agriculture.

Environmental Conservation  

Conservation Research: Amazing Sights

SCRP funding is being supported beyond volunteer payments through four SCRP ‘micro-projects', focusing on four lemur species (Eulemur collaris, Avahi meridionalis, Microcebus tanosi, and Cheirogaleus thomasi), the Elongate leaf chameleon (Palleon nasus), freshwater fish diversity, and microbat diversity. With a new Conservation Research Coordinator in place, more potential micro-projects will be discussed. These amazing photographs of Pteropus rufus fruit bats (Madagascan Flying Fox) were taken by SCRP during April’s research trip. Pteropus rufus breed between April and May, so it was great to observe over 300 bats circling the skies during roost counts. The team also located a fleeting roost site, where the colony may be relocating to when there is disturbance close to the original roost. 

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