Living and Learning with Climate Change in Southeast Madagascar
Over the past year, Madagascar has experienced cyclones, droughts, and other extreme weather
events. As theoretical arguments continue about the role of climate change in causing these events,
Madagascar has now been ranked 10th in the Children’s Climate Risk Index which assesses multiple
rankings of climate against child vulnerability (UNICEF, 2021). SEED’s WASH and Schools team has
been speaking with teachers and students at schools previously built by SEED to ask them how they
are living with climate change and the impact it has had on their learning environment.
Increasingly people in Madagascar are experiencing more extreme and unpredictable
weather events. This year four large storms have hit Madagascar during its cyclone season. Tropical
Storm Ana (22nd January), Tropical Cyclone Batsirai (5th February), Tropical Storm Dumako (16th
February), and Tropical Cyclone Emnati (23rd February) killed a total of 205 people and displaced
thousands of others (UNOCHA, 2022). The south-east of Madagascar witnessed heavy flooding and
destruction to infrastructure, with 23,000 homes damaged by Cyclone Emnati alone. Perversely
these storms came during Madagascar’s worst drought in 40 years, causing what some experts
called the world’s ‘first climate change induced famine’ (Harding, 2021). The drought worsened
existing food insecurity as the population’s farmlands suffered. These most recent disruptions to
livelihoods have been seen to impact children’s education, an already challenging part of life
especially for those living in rural areas.
“Sometimes there is a delay in enrolment when there is a drought because of famine; parents have no money to pay for tuition.” – Teacher from Vatambe Primary School
“The number of children attending classes is declining because their parents do not have money;
lots of student do not come to school, especially when it rains.” - Teacher from Mandiso Lower Secondary School
Natural hazards, such as floods, droughts, and cyclones become natural disasters when they
strike populated areas that do not have the infrastructure or financial systems to cope. As a result,
the most vulnerable populations are the most at risk, and will experience more disasters as climate
change continues. Around the world, extreme weather has been linked to significant disruptions to
education in various countries. For example, in Costa Rica, a study found that students in more
humid and warmer villages were at higher risk of absenteeism and poor academic outcomes
(Marchetta et al. 2019). In the Anosy region of Madagascar, children’s access to education was
immediately felt as 122 schools were damaged as a result of Cyclone Emnati in February this year.
Vatambe Primary School, built by SEED in the beginning of 2021, was one of the schools impacted by
the cyclone. Although the building withstood the cyclone well, part of the roof was ripped off in one
building, exposing classrooms to adverse weather and heavily impacting student access to a safe
learning environment.
Classes at Vatambe Primary School were halted for two weeks as a result of the February
cyclones. Students from the school explained the challenges they experienced in even travelling to
school after storms impacted roads and bridges. This made coming to school risky for both students
and teachers impacting teaching ahead of upcoming exams as people stayed at home.
“During the last cyclone, we have not been able to study for two weeks because our
teachers live far away. All of them live beside the lake which has grown up so they cannot go through.” – Student from Mandiso Lower Secondary School
In contexts such as rural Madagascar, children’s education can be extremely sensitive to rain variability (Nübler et al. 2021). On one hand, rainfall shocks and flooding impact school attendance
by disrupting journeys to schools and existing infrastructure. On the other hand, a lack of consistent rain has been seen to lower average test scores as risks of drought increase (Marchetta et al. 2019). Both flooding and drought can affect family agriculture and interrupt schooling as child health and nutrition deteriorate. After last year’s drought that prompted SEED’s Emergency Food Distribution Programme, students described the impact of crop damage on their education and expressed their understanding of the link between famine and school disruptions.
“The fruits reduced because the pollen was blown away by the cyclone. The rice is declining also
because it is not hot then it floods, that is the weather here.” - Student from Mandiso Lower Secondary School
When asked about the impact of climate change on their school, one teacher expressed their concern with the increase of mosquitoes after rains. Extreme weather events have been
related to vector-borne diseases such as malaria, and waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea, respiratory diseases, and tuberculosis. Risks include the contamination of water sources, disruption to sanitation facilities, and the drying of wells. With children globally estimated to bear 88% of the burden of disease due to climate change, the importance of WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) infrastructure in schools is only increasing (Philipsborn et al 2018).
Climate change and extreme weather events have been seen to encourage young people,
more often young women, to enter the workforce early in Madagascar (Marchetta et al. 2019).
Children can also be kept home to help with family livelihoods such as cattle grazing and farming,
which is more regularly seen in boys of schooling age (Arciprete et al. 2022).
“Some of the students drop out due to the poverty of their parents. That is, they are struggling in
their livelihood due to a long famine. They even ask their children to help.” - Teacher from Vatambe Primary School
“If the lake is getting bigger my father gets me to work with him to the paddy field and I cannot go to school.” - Student from Mandiso Lower Secondary School
When weather shocks mean that households cannot afford school fees, teachers in Madagascar who rely on parents’ payments are not paid and therefore “not motivated to spend time at school”. With teachers then absent, the quality of teaching can go down.
Both the immediate and time lagged effects of climate change are expected to impact the
people of Madagascar in coming years. In climate projections, cyclones are expected to decrease in
frequency but increase in intensity (Tomalka et al, 2020). Rainfall shocks are expected to increase
flooding, whilst more frequent dry periods would also impact soil moisture and water availability. As
one of the top ten countries in UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index, Madagascar is threatened by
the long-term prospects that early-age climate impacts, such as childhood malnutrition, can have on
the population in later life (UNICEF, 2021).
“For me as a teacher the student’s education is sad.” - Teacher from Vatambe Primary School
In SEED-built schools, teachers and students are having to adapt to the challenges of climate change by holding catch-up study days when classes fall behind. Teachers are also adapting curriculums to include environmental education, reflected in students’ understanding of climate change impacts. Children and young people can play significant roles in leading and strengthening community adaptation to climate change (Sharma, 2013). They can also act as important bridges between generations as knowledge needed for the future is passed down. SEED’s construction team are nearing the end of the repair works on buildings damaged by cyclones at Vatambe and Mananara II Primary Schools. They are also making plans to refine their construction to better withstand extreme weather events. A new school design that fits concrete gutters to the edge of roofs to protect against high winds and rain rather than using plastic guttering is on track for later this year at Mandiso Lower Secondary School.
These adaptations to SEED’s school projects and the repairs to school buildings at Vatambe and Mananara II wouldn’t be possible without SEED Sekoly Fund. This fund allows SEED to perform repairs that extend beyond the remits of donor funding and is a vital source for SEED’s schools after projects have been completed. Please find the link to donate to the Sekoly Fund here.
References:
1. Arciprete, C, & Silva Leander, S. (2022) Gender Inequalities in Madagascar Policy Brief.
UNICEF. Available from:
https://www.unicef.org/madagascar/media/8671/file/Gender%20inequalities%20in%20Ma
dagascar.pdf
2. Harding, A. (2021) Madagascar on the brink of climate change-induced famine. BBC News.
Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-58303792.
3. Marchetta,F., Sahn, D. & Tiberti., L. (2019) The role of weather on schooling and work of
young adults in Madagascar. Amer. J. Agr. Econ. 101(4): 1203–1227. doi:
10.1093/ajae/aaz015.
4. Nübler, L., Austrian, K., Maluccio, J. & Pinchoff, J. (2021) Rainfall shocks, cognitive
development and educational attainment among adolescents in a drought-prone region in
Kenya. Environment and Development Economics, 26, 466–487.
doi:10.1017/S1355770X20000406.
5. Philipsborn, RP. & Chan K. (2018) Climate Change and Global Child Health. Pediatrics.
141(6):e20173774. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2017-3774.
6. Sharma, U., A. Patwardhan, & A. G. Patt. (2013) Education as a determinant of response to
cyclone warnings: evidence from coastal zones in India. Ecology and Society 18(2): 18.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-05439-180218.
7. Tomalka, J., Lange, S., Röhrig, F. & Gornott, C. (2020) Climate Risk Profile: Madagascar
(Climate Risk Profiles for Sub-Saharan Africa Series), Federal Ministry for Economic
Cooperation. Available from: https://publications.pik-
potsdam.de/pubman/faces/ViewItemFullPage.jsp?itemId=item_25254_1.
8. UNICEF (2021). The Climate Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate
Risk Index. New York: United Nations Children’s Fund. Available from:
https://www.unicef.org/media/105376/file/UNICEF-climate-crisis-child-rights-crisis.pdf
9. UNOCHA (2022) “Cyclones Batsirai and Emnati in Madagascar: How the Private Sector Is
Responding.” Available from: www.connectingbusiness.org/news-events/news/cyclones-
batsirai-and-emnati-madagascar-how-private-sector-responding.