SEED Madagascar

Assessing poverty and the relative importance of small-scale lobster fishing activity in coastal communities, southeast Madagascar

Jessica C. Savage, Sylvestre M. Randrianantenaina, Andrew Turner, Annelin Verkade, Allison B. DeVries, Quinn M. Parker, Stephen Long .

Over 1.3 billion people worldwide are living in multidimensional poverty, where income and access to critical goods, services and utilities is limited. A lack of reliable, accessible, and resource-efficient methods of measuring poverty is a barrier to assessing the effectiveness of conservation and development initiatives designed to alleviate poverty and promote prosperity. This study employed the Basic Necessities Survey (BNS) as a context-specific tool for measuring multidimensional poverty. The approach produces a BNS score based on the level of access to assets (e.g., cooking equipment) and services (e.g., access to a doctor) that are locally considered basic necessities. The BNS was applied in southeast Madagascar to assess levels of prosperity in six coastal communities and gain insights into the relative importance of lobster fishing as an economic activity.

Key topics:

Sustainable Livelihoods

Year of publication:

2024

Published in:

MADAGASCAR CONSERVATION & DEVELOPMENT