SEED Madagascar

Project Miatrika, which means ‘resilience’ in Malagasy, seeks to improve the health status of children aged 6-59 months through a holistic response to acute malnutrition. Rooted in the principles of recovery and resilience, Miatrika aims to facilitate long-term community resilience to future food-related crises and shocks.

Food Access and Insecurity in Southern Madagascar

In southern Madagascar, a changing climate and five consecutive years of failed rains have led to the country’s most severe drought in 40 years.¹ A concurrent increase in cyclone activity and pest infestations have amplified these drought conditions and resulted in a significant decline in the production of staple foods, including rice, cassava, and maize, as well as the deterioration of livestock conditions.² Additional factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic and rising global food prices, have compounded these challenges and led to a food insecurity crisis, with approximately 1.08 million people facing high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition.³

The rate of chronic malnutrition across Madagascar is 42 per cent, placing it as the 10th worst country affected by stunting in the world.

- World Food Programme⁴ 

These food insecurity outcomes across the country’s south are projected to deteriorate until April 2024, with rates of acute malnutrition expected to peak through the lean season between November and March.⁵ During this period, communities may be forced to adopt crisis-coping mechanisms to manage nutritional challenges, such as consuming atypically high amounts of wild foods, decreasing meal frequency and portion size, or selling household assets.⁶ While intended to mitigate consumption gaps, these coping strategies are unlikely to support households to meet their nutritional needs, with children being disproportionately affected.⁷ As a result, from June 2023 to April 2024, 458,700 children under the age of five are likely to suffer acute malnutrition and require immediate food assistance to prevent life-long consequences on growth and development.⁸

Launch of Project Miatrika

Building on the success of SEED’s Emergency Food Distribution Programme, Project Miatrika aims to reduce the prevalence of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and severe acute malnutrition (SAM) among children aged 6-59 months in the southeast Anosy region of Madagascar. To achieve this objective, SEED will collaborate with the National Ministry of Health and 22 community health centres to distribute ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF), a treatment for MAM, and unprepared staple foods (rice, beans, and oil) to 136 communities. Seeking to enhance community resilience to the shocks of future food insecurity, Project Miatrika will also provide targeted education sessions on nutrition, health, and sanitation to promote positive behaviours that reduce susceptibility to malnutrition.

From 2023-2026 Project Miatrika aims to:

• Meet the immediate health needs of 12,000 children aged 6-59 months diagnosed with MAM through the distribution of RUSF
• Safeguard the nutritional well-being of children experiencing MAM and SAM and their families through the distribution of rice, beans, and oil to over 5,800 households
• Support 12,000 mothers and caregivers to monitor and screen their children’s nutrition level, enhancing early identification of malnutrition and self-referral
• Enhance the capacity of 272 community health workers to detect, screen, identify, and refer children with MAM and SAM to community health centres for treatment  
• Equip 22 medical staff across 22 community health centres with the skills and knowledge to effectively treat children with malnutrition and associated health conditions
• Promote positive social behaviour change among caregivers of children under five through educational sessions on topics including the nutritional needs of children and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)

Another pillar of Project Miatrika focuses on collaborating with local people to identify pre-existing practices that enable certain households within food-insecure communities to have well-nourished children. Through this collaboration, SEED will encourage food-secure families to share strategies for preventing malnutrition, such as purchasing and storing nutrient-rich and locally available foods. By circulating pre-existing coping mechanisms, SEED aims to build resilience to food insecurity and malnutrition, now and in the future.

Long-Term Impact

Project Miatrika seeks to alleviate food-related pressures in 136 communities across the southeast Anosy region of Madagascar by facilitating long-term recovery and resilience. With food insecurity outcomes projected to worsen over the next 12 months, Miatrika aims to mitigate the health impacts of unaddressed malnutrition and support communities to maintain a food-secure environment in the face of climate change, extreme weather, and rising food prices. At a global level, Project Miatrika helps attain progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of No Poverty (SDG1), Zero Hunger (SDG2), and Good Health and Well-Being (SDG3) and supports global efforts to ensure all people have access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food.

Donors

Project Miatrika has been made possible thanks to a partnership with Humedica and funding from the German Federal Foreign Office.

 

Sustainable Development Goals See how Miatrika and other SEED projects contribute towards the UN SDGs

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Our EFD Programme

Learn more about SEED's Emergency Food Distribution Programme here

Related blog

Read how the severe drought across Madagascar has impacted food access and insecurity