Food Distribution in Anosy Region
Southern Madagascar is currently experiencing extreme food shortages and rising prices. Following months of closed borders and restrictions on travel and trade, food insecurity is growing across the Island with the situation in the south now critical. This, coupled with seasonal drought and cyclical lean seasons before crops can be harvested means half the region’s population, or 1.5 million people, are now not able to find enough food to eat. The number of people affected is three times the number projected mid-year, with women and children comprising most of those experiencing “crisis” or “emergency” hunger conditions.
As hunger numbers rise, so do the proportion of families who are resorting to crisis-coping mechanisms. Reports are now circulating in National and International media of people being forced to eat bugs or clay, and SEED staff have reported that those in rural communities are resorting to eating plants that unless soaked for days are poisonous.
“Southern Madagascar continues to experience its worst drought in 40 years, leaving part of the population fighting for survival. Three years of consecutive severe drought have wiped out harvests and hampered access to food in Madagascar’s Grand South regions”.
IPC, January 2022
SEED’s Emergency Food Distribution Programme
SEED’s Emergency Food Distribution Programme is working to alleviate the severe food crises in the
Anosy region of Southern Madagascar. SEED is working as part of Madagascar’s wider national and
regional response to food insecurity, in collaboration with the nutrition cluster, Ministry of Health, and
local health centres to provide a community-centred approach to food distribution. With the goal of
improving the health and longer-term resilience of food insecure communities in southeast Madagascar,
SEED’s approach is multi-faceted. Children diagnosed with moderate or severe acute malnutrition are
given ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) every 15 days. Additionally, the families of these children
are provided with unprepared staple food stocks every 30 days, including rice, beans, and oil.
To ensure longer term positive impacts, SEED provides education sessions around nutrition and water,
sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and distributes hand soap following these sessions. To further equip
communities with information to improve their longer-term health and resilience, trained community
health workers will conduct household visits with women and girls to mobilise information about family
planning services offered at their local health centre. Empowering communities with knowledge on
good hygiene, nutrition, and family planning practices helps ensure improved living conditions for
beneficiaries even after programming has finished.
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SEED’s Emergency Food Distribution Programme is working to alleviate food insecurity and promote community recovery and longer-term resilience in two project sites: Fort Dauphin North and Fort Dauphin South.
Fort Dauphin North
Round III (February 2022 – Present)
Built on the first two rounds of distribution in Fort Dauphin North, SEED provides support to seven rural
health clinics in five food-insecure communes, covering 41 villages surrounding Fort Dauphin. SEED aims
to:
- Increase the capacity of 98 health workers to identify, treat, and monitor recovery of malnutrition.
- Distribute 60 days’ worth of RUTF and unprepared food to children with moderate or severe acute malnutrition and their families.
- Support children with severe acute malnutrition and additional complications by covering the costs of transport for the patient and two accompanying family members to the regional hospital for emergency care.
- Provide nutrition education to families, equipping them to better understand children’s nutritional needs and adapt their behaviors to prevent malnutrition and other illnesses in the future.
- Distribute hand soap to beneficiaries alongside WASH information sessions.
- Increase the capacity of 98 health workers across five food-insecure communes to provide communities with information on family planning services.
Impact of Previous Rounds
Key successes during Round I (February 2021 – July 2021) and Round II (August 2021 – December 2021)
of the project in Fort Dauphin North have informed current and future programming. As seen in the
table below, Round II had 100% recovery rates of both moderately and severely malnourished children
making a full recovery.
Over the course of these two rounds, SEED:
- Trained 82 health workers to identify, treat, and monitor recovery of malnutrition.
- Distributed a total of 62,102 sachets of RUTF to 751 children with moderate acute malnutrition.
- Distributed 52,086 kilograms of rice, 35,021 cups of beans and 5,196 litres of oil to the 921families of malnourished children
- Delivered nutrition and WASH information sessions to 921 families with malnourished children to ensure that children were given the recovery environment they needed. Subjects ranged from nutrition for children to hygiene behaviours, and caregivers reported that the sessions were highly informative and helpful.
- Conducted interviews, which revealed significant increases in trust and willingness to use community health centres as a result of the project. 97.8% of caregiver respondents reported they would be more likely to approach a community health centre due to SEED’s food distribution project.
Fort Dauphin South (December 2021 – Present)
In partnership with health workers across eight local health centres, this two-round project, funded by
NGO Humedica, aims to support 730 moderately to severely malnourished children and their families.
Overall, SEED intends to reach 4,300 family members across 45 villages in five communes in Southeast
Madagascar. Round I of this project began December 1, 2021. During Rounds I and II, SEED will:
- Increase the capacity of 100 health workers in eight health centres to identify, treat, and monitor recovery of malnutrition across five food-insecure communes.
- Distribute 60 days’ worth of RUTF and unprepared food to an estimated 730 children with moderate or severe acute malnutrition and their families.
- Support children with severe acute malnutrition and additional complications by covering the costs of transport for the patient and two accompanying family members to the regional hospital for emergency care.
- Provide nutrition education to families, equipping them to better understand children’s nutritional needs and adapt their behaviors to prevent malnutrition and other illnesses in the future.
- Distribute hand soap to beneficiaries alongside WASH information sessions.
Donors
This project is possible thanks to the generosity of The Silver Lady Fund, Humedica, and private donors via Enthuse.
