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MADAGASCAR
>> AFR Regional Overview >> Madagascar Overview
Development Challenge Summary Tables
Program Summary
Previous Years' Activities
2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 199748
Introduction
The principal U.S. interests in Madagascar are humanitarian and environmental. U.S. bilateral programs are helping the Malagasy people break out of poverty; recover from the devastating cyclones of 2000; deepen democracy; strengthen trade links with the United States; and manage effectively one of the earth's most extraordinary sources of bio-diversity. The United States is particularly influential with the Government of Madagascar (GOM), other donors, and private foundations on issues such as HIV/AIDS prevention, the integrated management of childhood illnesses, bio-diversity conservation, and poverty analysis. Madagascar's strategic objectives support USAID's three new priority areas in economic growth and agriculture; global health; and conflict prevention and developmental relief.
The Development Challenge
Seventy-one percent of Madagascar's people were living in poverty in 1999. Poverty in Madagascar is more widespread in rural areas (77%) than in urban areas (52%). This situation is mainly due to low economic growth and a rapidly increasing population against the backdrop of the country's twenty years of failed socialist economic and regulatory policies that discouraged private sector investment and growth. Madagascar also suffers from intensive deforestation and soil erosion, declines in soil fertility, declines in health status (particularly among children), and weak political and social institutions.
There is general agreement in the donor community that the country is now more positively positioned for future growth and development. Following Madagascar's transition to democracy in the early 1990s, the GOM stabilized the economy. In 1996, to reverse its economic decline, launch sustained growth, and reduce poverty, the GOM negotiated an ambitious Structural Adjustment Program with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. U.S. leadership is credited with having brought the international financial institutions, donors, and the GOM together on completion of this key step. In December 2000, Madagascar adopted an Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (I-PRSP) and reached the decision point under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. Madagascar's debt service ratio, which had reached 46% in 1996, will decline to 5.3% by 2003 with the HIPC initiative.
To respond to Madagascar's compelling needs and promote U.S. interests, USAID pursues three objectives: Improved Environment for Private Initiative; Smaller, Healthier Families; and Biologically Diverse Ecosystems Conserved in Priority Conservation Zones. Through a well-established dialogue with the GOM, there is strong Malagasy ownership of, and support for, the USAID program and its objectives. Although U.S. resources are modest, USAID's program is a premier lab in Madagascar for new models of development that leverage resources from other donors, private businesses, and foundations for scale-up. This is reflected in the fact that, in the face of limited funding, all three of USAID's objectives are on track to achieve the results expected by the end of the current strategic planning period in FY 2003.
Madagascar received approximately $13 million in FY 2000 and FY 2001 in International Disaster Assistance for the repair of cyclone-damaged agriculture facilities and farm-to-market road, port and rail infrastructure. Repair work will conserve biodiversity as it restores cash crop farmers' market access, thereby forestalling slash-and-burn farming. The new investment stream will deepen Madagascar's understanding of the links between forest conservation, agricultural productivity, and economic growth; however, it does not directly address Madagascar's long-term need to alleviate poverty and conserve bio-diversity effectively. Another $4 million provides safe water and essential drugs, cholera and malaria prevention to victims, and is improving disaster preparedness.
The key to reducing poverty in Madagascar is the establishment of a legal, policy, and institutional environment that promotes private initiative and contributes to sustainable economic development. With USAID support, business codes are being modernized and judicial reform is underway to protect and promote the right of economic participants to invest and employ their resources productively. USAID provides a critical contribution to efforts to expand access to the poor to sustainable micro-finance services and to the implementation of supportive financial policies. Working with civil society, USAID also supports greater public participation in economic and legal issues, accountability, and the rule of law. In addition, USAID is helping to improve Madagascar's trade and investment regime and its effective integration into the global economy.
Conserving Madagascar's environment is one of the GOM's highest priorities. With USAID's assistance, Madagascar is finding ways to meet the resource needs of an expanding population while better conserving its unique bio-diversity: 80% of its species are found nowhere else on earth. Assisting in preserving this unique biodiversity heritage offers unparalleled opportunities to stem the mass extinction of species and environmental degradation that is now underway globally. However, continued high levels of poverty represent the single biggest threat to these global treasures. To face this challenge, USAID, a major contributor to the 15-year Malagasy Environmental Action Plan, is working with the GOM, U.S. private voluntary organizations (PVOs), and other donors to increase the plan's effectiveness. USAID's support improves the country's ability to manage its bio-diversity by expanding natural resource management responsibilities of Malagasy institutions, transferring management to local communities, and increasing ecotourism and private sector involvement in conservation enterprises within bio-diversity-rich ecological regions.
Madagascar's high rate of population growth is a major contributor to the country's low standard of living as its population growth outpaces economic growth. USAID is the main donor for family planning, child survival, and food aid, and supports the enhancement of the country's overall polio eradication and immunization program. USAID's highly successful family planning and condom promotion program is complemented by HIV/AIDS prevention activities targeted at high-risk populations. USAID is also helping to define policies for effective nutrition programs while encouraging communities and families to play an active role in disease recognition and prevention. To provide information to improve the use of scarce resources in the health sector, USAID supports the improvement of health, nutrition, and demographic data.
Over half of Madagascar's children are malnourished. USAID has laid a strong foundation for the alleviation of food insecurity. The P.L. 480 Title II program accelerates the transition from food distribution through clinics to integrated community-based food distribution. A portion of the donated food is sold through local channels to support activities that improve the food security of Madagascar's most vulnerable citizens. USAID works in collaboration with other donors to enhance the planning and targeting capacity of the National Disaster Committee through mapping which identifies areas of Madagascar where the most vulnerable populations reside and highlight ways to mitigate that vulnerability.
USAID also continues to play a catalytic role in bringing the benefits of the Internet to this once-isolated island nation. With past funding from the Leland Initiative, direct Internet connectivity has now been extended beyond the capital to two of Madagascar's most important secondary cities, the port of Toamasina and the industrial center of Antsirabe. These successes, and Madagascar's demonstrated commitment to continuing to expand Internet access, have attracted additional resources from the Africa Regional Education for Democracy and Development Initiative. USAID is using these resources to connect Malagasy civil society, universities, and other partner organizations to the Internet and to help develop networks between groups in Madagascar and other nations that share common interests and objectives.
Other Donors
The key donors in rank order are the World Bank, France, the United States, the European Union, and Japan. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper has become the focal point of GOM and donor collaboration on policy change and development programs. Transportation and communications, health and education, environment, and agriculture remain the priority investment areas for donor support. Donor unity is well established on disaster relief, HIV/AIDS prevention, structural reform, improved governance and transparency in natural resource management, and strengthening civil society.
FY 2002 Program
The FY 2002 program will focus on: supporting private initiative; rural development; health (including important child survival programs) and HIV/AIDS prevention; family planning; food security, disaster preparedness and cyclone rehabilitation; and conserving Madagascar's unique biological diversity. The requested P.L. 480 Title II resources for FY 2002 are critical to assuring that USAID's food security strategy reaches vulnerable populations. PVO partners will use proceeds from the Title II monetization program to increase food availability, access, and use. They will continue to work among populations living in disaster-prone areas to build local capacities for cyclone and drought preparedness, mitigation and response. USAID will build upon its sound relationships with U.S. PVOs, faith-based organizations, private foundations and private enterprises to leverage resources and expand advocacy for shared development priorities.
Activity Data Sheets
- 687-001, Improved Environment for Private Initiative
- 687-002, Smaller, Healthier Families
- 687-003, Biologically Diverse Ecosystems Conserved in Priority Conservation Zones
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Last Updated on: May 29, 2002 |
