Madagascar invests in Social Protection to build Resilient Communities and to Empower Rural Women
To build resilient communities, especially in Madagascar, a country struck by recurrent droughts, food crises, natural shocks and cyclones, the World Food Programme, accompanying Government authorities, is reaching out to 70,000 households in the Anosy and Androy regions, in the South of Madagascar, in 1,027 fokontany (villages), 39 communes and 5 villages districts (Ambovombe, Amboasary, Beloha, Tshiombe and Betioky), to help restore lives, through cash distribution to the most vulnerable population.
The partners are the Ministry of Population, Social Protection and Promotion of Women in the country, along with the Development Intervention Fund (FID), the National Office of Nutrition (ONN) and the National Office of Risk Management and disasters (BNGRC).
Madagascar has approved its National Social Protection Policy in 2015 and its Social Protection Strategy 2019–2023. Both have a specific focus on shock response via a social protection system. The World Food Programme (WFP), in close collaboration with UNICEF and the World Bank in Madagascar, supports the country’s strategy, which complements the humanitarian response with long-term development assistance.
The Toseke Vonje Aigne project has enabled the introduction of conditional cash transfers (by strengthening the resilience of households) and unconditional cash transfers (30,000 Ariary in cash per month per household, or 60,000 Ariary per household every two months) to encourage a return to normal activities and to support the reconstitution of the population’s production capacities, hit by natural shocks and climate change calamities. It has also encouraged socio-behavioral changes among household members in the areas of nutrition, health and education.
In addition to cash transfers, many communities are benefiting from sessions for mothers on breastfeeding, culinary demonstrations to ensure dietary diversity and the importance of keeping children in school: Three positive effects resulting directly from conditional cash transfers.
The Toseke-vonje aigne extension of the FIAVOTA project covered the lean season from November 2018 to March 2019. It benefited 11 000 households in the two communes of Beloha and Ikopoke, thanks to the monetary transfer of 70 000 Ariary per household per month, as well as accompanying measures in the socio-economic field.
This project can be considered as one of the flagship projects to explain the Humanitarian Nexus and Development expressed by the United Nations Reform. It addresses the issues of management, coordination and synergy of United Nations joint projects, as well as the search for performance and effectiveness in humanitarian response. The project is also consistent with the overall demand for transparency and accountability of each stakeholder, and effective management of financial resources for the implementation of the Delivering as One mandate.
The social protection system in Madagascar is already very advanced, and can be used as a model for other countries in the world.
The innovation lies in strengthening the capacity of the Government’s national system to respond to crises by promoting coordination between humanitarian and development actors. It is enabled by trust in the government system, availability to provide technical support to support the national program in certain phases, and coordination of ONE UN.
In this context of social protection for all in Madagascar, the role of women in rural settings is essential and a pre-requisite to fulfilling the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals, aiming to end poverty and hunger, to achieve food security and to empower all women and girls.
Ms. Ranobole, in the commune of Ikopoky Fokontany Agnara, working in the local market and selling cassava, 31 years old, married with two children, benefited from two months of cash transfers, for a total of 140.000 Ariary in the context of the project Toseke Vonjy Aigne; She tells us “With the money I have received, I had the opportunity to buy food to better nourish my kids, to invest more in agriculture, as well as to save some money and to also buy three goats”.
More than ever, smallholder farmers, and especially women working in agriculture, are facing the consequences of climate change related-disasters; Madagascar is ranked 8th of 180 countries on the 2015 Climate Risk Index. The country saw the prevalence and intensity of disasters increase between 1982 and 2015, when 2,200 cyclones, floods and droughts were recorded. The effects of such events contribute to high national rates of poverty.
Women farmers may be as productive and enterprising as their male counterparts, but are less able to access land, credit, agricultural inputs, markets and high-value agrifood chains and obtain lower prices for their crops.
On this year’s theme of International Rural Women Day (15 October), we must focus more on ensuring that social protection for gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls is at the heart of sustainable development, breaking gender disparities and allowing women to have a voice on household decisions, increased access to productive and natural resources; For this, work to decrease negative impacts of climate change on women’s agricultural production, food security, health and nutrition should be set a priority; Less vulnerabilities, more resilience, stronger societies.
Our job is to save lives through humanitarian response, and to change lives, through a long-term response, fostering community development and empowerment.
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