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Mae’n ddrwg gen i, mae’r cofnod hwn dim ond ar gael mewn English.
YOUNG women in a land-locked, remote area of Madagascar are taking the lead in their communities’ response to climate change.
A Money for Madagascar programme in Maintirano, capital of the Melaky region in western Madagascar, has helped 16 women aged 20-45 lead a series of initiatives which are building better lives for women, and the communities of which they are part, in the face of climate change and ongoing poverty and comparative isolation.
The Femmes menant des Innovations dans leur Environnement pour leur Résilience Economique et Sociale et celle de leurs communautés, or FIERES – which translates in English as Women Leading Innovations in their Environment for their Economic and Social Resilience and that of their Communities: PROUD – programme ran from 23 November 2003 to 30 November 2024, and has delivered power to women and their communities to improve their lives and livelihoods while protecting their environment and overcoming the impacts of climate change on them and their work.
Maintirano’s region Melaky is cut off from the rest of Madagascar for many months of the year, when the road in and out of the region is impassible. Though officially an Urban Commune, Maintirano is environmentally – and as a result also by its people’s activities – more like a rural area.
Almost all income-generation comes from agriculture, while climate change which is causing shorter rainy periods and higher temperatures resulting in water shortage and soil damage, the latter exacerbated by slash-and-burn cultivation, while intense more intense rain than average when precipitation does occur causes floods.
All of these, along with the region’s relative isolation, traps communities in poverty and food shortage – already a challenge in a nation in which 79.7 per cent of the population lives on or below the global poverty baseline of £1.73 per day.
These factors in turn lead to reduced household incomes, and increased reliance on natural resources which are increasingly also under attack from climate change, and amplify structural societal inequalities, including between women and men. Women in particular had little or no access to resources, a low level of education, and little access to information, which makes them even more vulnerable.
PROUD, with funding from the French Foreign Office’s Innovative Projects of Civil Societies and Coalitions of Actors (PISCCA) and in partnership with SAF Melaky and the Federation of Women’s Associations FIVEMI, trained the young women to develop and deliver innovations and information about environmental protection, gender-based violence, the gender approach and positive discrimination, the causes of climate change, and group facilitation techniques.
It also engaged men, to ensure full community engagement and support, and promoted GECs – ‘savings and loans’ groups, through which members – the majority women – could fund innovations to improve incomes and community living standards.
PROUD delivered:
- Training to 16 young women, aged 20-45, who are now Focal Persons (FPs), sharing knowledge and skills with communities
- Meetings led by those young women to help communities pinpoint perceptions and feelings that are caused by climate change and its impacts, to serve as a starting-point for innovations and projects to respond to those impacts
- Sixteen CEGs, with a total of 362 members – 338 (93 per cent) of them women – which, with guidance from the 16 FPs, help support climate change adaptation projects
- A steering committee of two men and five women to advise the FPs, project team, and work to promote and drive the initiative with local authorities
So far, 15 initiatives have been funded, each driving up incomes, protecting the local environment and reducing and overcoming the impacts of climate change upon the communities.
Though the programme finished late in 2024, the facilities and processes it has set up, as well as the 16 women who have led the communities’ response, changing lives as well as livelihoods in the face of great challenges, can ensure the empowered women and their communities can keep driving progress for years to come.
Ms. Nadine, a member of the GEC Al Noor, described her experience:
‘Thanks to the GEC, I have flourished in society,‘ she said.
‘Before, my husband would never let me leave the house without his permission. By accepting my membership in the GEC and going out for the weekly group meetings, my husband has contributed to my change.
‘With the money I borrowed from the GEC, I opened a small business that gives me a net profit of 20,000 Ariary per day. With this, I can help feed our family and pay for our children’s school fees.
‘My husband has become proud of me and encourages me to continue my activities because they meet our daily needs. We can save for bigger projects for our family, such as buying furniture or financing our children’s higher education.‘
Ms Ravoajanahary, a member of the GEC Miray Hina, said:
‘I used to be a very poor woman. My friends encouraged me to join the GEC but I thought the group is for the rich, so I was not motivated. Besides, I doubted my ability to contribute.
‘Finally, because of them, I joined the GEC Miray Hina. I perform agricultural labour earning 5,000 Ariary per day and I set aside 1,000 Ariary per day to pay 5,000 Ariary from my weekly savings to the GEC.
‘With the remaining 4,000 Ariary, I contribute to our daily needs at home. My husband then asked me to borrow money from the GEC to open a small business.
‘This investment worked well and I was able to repay my loan and the interest even before the accepted deadline. I borrowed even more money afterwards to finance the care and treatment of my child who was hospitalised in Majunga. He is cured now.‘
Read the full project report here.
