Elements of Solutions Journalism in The Resilience of Madagascar’s Famine
Madagascar is a country that battles with draught and fights against famine annually. Communities in Madagascar have to overcome these annual challenges by walking hours to markets, working with aid organizations, and selling their most basics needs for food. The article Madagascar skirted famine-barely. Now, it’s boosting resilience before drought returns talks about the challenges that Madagascar faces and how various communities are fighting against famine every day.
From a Solutions Journalism lens, this article discusses the challenges that a community faces and also some of the current practices that are taking place in order to combat said challenges.
In Madagascar, one of the crops that farmers harvest are sweet potatoes. However, due to the draught, the sweet potatoes do not produce or they become rotten within a week’s time. One of the practices that was implemented by a food aid organization was a new strain of sweet potato that would be able to withstand a drought with little watering.
Aid organizations worked with farmers to harvest this new strain and the farmer was able to retain sweet potatoes over the drought. This new strain is now a sustainable practice that will be able to be used for seasons to come.
Through the article there are examples of how community members have worked with aid agencies to create solutions to meet communities’ basic needs of clean water and food. However, where the article was lacking was insight into the governments initiatives as well as how the various communities have worked together and created their own practices outside of what the aid organizations have contributed.
This article is cited by the Solutions Journalism Network as a piece of solutions journalism. But the story is an aid focused solutions piece.
According to the writer, Madagascar is a country that is untouched by the West’s standards of modernization and industrialization. The writer expresses their opinion on it: “Madagascar’s pitiful infrastructure makes food aid delivery easier said than done.”
This sentence shifted the tone of the article from informative to judgmental on the country’s current level of development. The use of the word “pitiful” diminishes and does not clearly define what the current infrastructure of Madagascar is objectively, to inform the reader. This was a missed opportunity for the writer to briefly discuss how the roads limit not only aid delivery, but also the people.
The highlighting of sustainable practices aid organizations have put in place and the discussion of how climate change continues to increase the droughts in Madagascar clearly create an opportunity for conversation. With quotes from aid organizers and community members there is a balance in the perspective of how aid organizations have helped create resilience in Madagascar. There could have been more investigation done in order to understand the intricacies of Madagascar beyond the support of aid organizations.
