From seeds to solar power in Madagascar: UN Resident Coordinator Blog

Since my arrival in Madagascar as UN Resident Coordinator in late 2020, the country has been hit by unprecedented cyclones and experienced the most severe drought in 40 years.

Along with other extreme weather events, the drought caused widespread famine and pushed thousands of people into near-famine-like conditions. In the south of the country, where the land is arid and households are more dependent on rainfed agriculture, the problem of malnutrition is especially serious.

Crops suffer not only from lack of water, but also from strong winds that blow away the fertile topsoil. Under these conditions, communities find it difficult to grow staple foods, such as corn.

improve nutrition

Last year, thanks to relatively adequate rainfall and increased humanitarian aid from our UN team and other partners, food security and nutrition improved in southern Madagascar. Our humanitarian response reached close to 1.1 million people in the areas of nutrition, food security and livelihoods, water, sanitation and hygiene, education, health and protection, and cash transfers.

In 2022, no district was classified as having a nutritional emergency, compared to five districts the previous year. However, speeding recovery from the drought and coping with its long-term effects across the region requires more than emergency aid.

That’s why, alongside ongoing humanitarian efforts, our UN country team has been working to help communities across the region build resilience to the effects of drought and prepare for future climate shocks.

The Resident Coordinator’s Office has played a key role in promoting greater integration of agency interventions, helping to increase synergies and boost the impact of our cooperation.

In April I visited the region to see on the ground the impact of our joint efforts on the communities. Here’s what’s working:

prevention is key

At a food distribution center in Maroalimpoty, run by the World Food Program (WFP), I was able to see how important integrated prevention measures are to tackle the problem of malnutrition. In addition to holding general food distributions to cover the immediate food needs of the most vulnerable families in the area, WFP uses the same location for screenings and nutrition support and awareness sessions for children and pregnant and lactating women.

In a neighboring commune, I visited an integrated health center where the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had trained nurses to screen children for malnutrition. The center offers a comprehensive package of high-impact nutritional interventions and, with the support of the Population Fund of the United Nations (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), carries out preventive, therapeutic and promotional activities on other health issues, which benefit the entire community.

At a nearby school UNICEF collaborated with the government and the private sector to install a solar-powered water desalination system that supplies potable water to the integrated health center, the school, and the rest of the community. The WFP works in the same school with its feeding program, which promotes attendance and school performance, two essential prevention measures.

eat with dignity

In the same commune, two interventions by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are helping to increase the capacity of vulnerable households through sustainable agricultural practices.

Thanks to these interventions, the commune’s farmer associations received drought-resistant seeds, tools and training on climate-smart agricultural practices. In addition, a solar-powered drip irrigation system, developed by FAO, provides year-round access to water, allowing households to grow enough for their own consumption and a surplus to sell at the local market. and keep as seeds.

Some households I met in the commune said that during the height of the crisis they sometimes only had cacti for daily food, but now, thanks to stronger crops, they have enough to eat “with dignity” and can even afford two meals a day. day.

For Madame Nativité, a widow with two children severely affected by the drought, the seeds and the small amount of cash she received from the program are helping her get back on her feet and send her children to school.

In the same area, I saw how a project run by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) adopted simple solutions to stabilize coastal dunes and protect crops from dust and sandstorms, known locally as thiomene. By planting three types of flora to lessen the impact of wind and retain soil moisture, this project has helped communities grow cash crops in fields previously lost to sand.

Members of a UN-supported association produce handicrafts.

Collaboration increases resilience

Agencies are collaborating in other ways to build economic resilience, which leads to better nutrition and food security outcomes. For example, in the integrated development cooperative we visited, UNDP is providing training and equipment to modernize the cultivation and processing of the sisal plant to produce handicrafts to sell.

In the same place, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and WFP have provided cooperative members with tools and knowledge to process other plants into non-perishable products, such as using cassava to produce flour, making jam from cactus, and organic soap with aloe vera, cactus or other extracts.

Talking to one of the association’s members, it became clear that, especially during the dry season, these handicrafts provide families in the region with an additional and stable source of income.

Taking a longer-term vision of development, IFAD-supported ecoagriculture aims to overcome chronic problems related to drought and climate change through the large-scale adoption of improved climate change adaptation practices.

For our final stop, we visited the remote village of Anjamahavelo, where WFP has established a solar power hub, connectivity and a sustainable water source that is being upgraded by UNICEF. At this location, UN entities and partners are collaborating to feed a drip irrigation system aimed at improving agricultural production and providing a series of integrated community services such as a digital classroom and a training center for women and youth.

Solar hubs have the potential to provide electricity to the community school and other structures, as well as offer business opportunities to diversify livelihoods and help communities weather future climate shocks.

© UNICEF Madagascar/Andrianantenaina

A girl accesses digital tools in a classroom in southern Madagascar.

Communities in southern Madagascar face daunting challenges, but I am also convinced that our increasingly integrated approach is our best response to the multidimensional problems of malnutrition and food insecurity.

In isolation, these interventions, ranging from food distribution and treatment of severe acute malnutrition to the adoption of climate change adaptive agricultural practices and sustainable energy generation, would have a positive, albeit limited, impact. However, by working together and creating synergies across the UN Country Team, we are achieving more lasting results and providing communities across the region with the tools they need to bounce back resiliently.