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Mae’n ddrwg gen i, mae’r cofnod hwn dim ond ar gael mewn English.
On International Women’s Day, Saturday 8 March 2025, we note that gender equality benefits everyone, and stress that equality is not only worthwhile because it helps everyone economically, but because we are all equally worthy and deserving of fundamental rights, equal opportunities, and equal outcomes from our efforts.
We are helping Malagasy women and girls – with engagement also from men and boys – to promote gender equality and create and make the most of their opportunities, skills, ideas and talent.
With Money for Madagascar and our partners, Malagasy women are improving our world, one step at a time.
On International Women’s Day, we mark the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
It’s also an important moment to highlight – and to remind us to keep in mind throughout the year – that all over the world, women are kept from achieving their full potential, as individuals and in social and economic collaborations, by sexism, misogyny and attitudes which spring from baseless prejudice and bigotry.
At Money for Madagascar, we work hard to ensure that women and girls are at the forefront of Malagasy people’s efforts to improve their lives and livelihoods, while protecting the magnificent unique environment which surrounds them, which we all rely upon, and of which we are all a part.
And that responsibility – to protect the environment upon which we all rely, even in the face of intense economic pressures including food shortage and poverty – means that these women’s efforts are literally helping to improve the world, every single day.
A year ago today, a statement by European Investment Bank President Nadia Calviño, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva, and the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Odile Renaud-Basso pointed out:
‘Gender equality and equal rights are not just a matter of equity; they are also of paramount economic importance. Research from the IMF suggests that narrowing the gender gap in labour markets could increase GDP in emerging markets and developing economies by almost eight per cent. The gains from fully closing the gender gap would be even higher, lifting GDP in those countries by 23 per cent on average.’
But we would like to add: while the three women – all exemplars of women’s ability in economics – are correct to stress that women’s rights and gender equality benefit community, regional and national economies (the ‘pragmatic’ view), they are also vital in and of themselves:
Women and girls deserve equal rights, equal opportunities and equal outcomes from their efforts because every person deserves them. Rights are ours – belonging to every person – because we are people.
The economic benefits of ensuring women and girls are empowered and play equal roles in innovation, initiatives and activities are real and must not be forgotten or undermined, but so is the reality that every person, regardless of gender, race, religion or any other factor, deserves equality because they are people. Because it is right.
In Madagascar, where we work, International Women’s Day is a national holiday for women.
But outside of holidays, we work with Malagasy people to help promote their rights, and help them improve incomes, health, education, prospects and living standards, as well as protect their environment. Those people are, with our assistance, helping make every day ‘women’s days’, increasing gender equality and opportunities.
Two examples are our Protecting and Empowering Vulnerable Children, and our Resilient Forests and Livelihoods programmes.
Protecting and Empowering Vulnerable Children
Protecting and Empowering Vulnerable Children provides shelter, healthcare, food, and routes into or back into education every year to hundreds of homeless children and others unable to live with their families.
Four centres run by our partners focus on girls, and young women, because prospects are bleak for the many girls trying to survive on the streets of Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo. With no education, skills, training, and no-one to provide for them, many face terrible choices between drugs, prostitution, or death.
We help younger girls by providing them care, food, shelter and attention, and by helping them back to school. For young women, our partners run courses – including the Women’s Promotion course at the Fihavanana Mahamasina Centre – which help them learn skills for work, to start their own businesses, and live with confidence and comfort.
Avotriniaina Fandresena, a 2024 graduate of the course, said: ‘During my two years studying the Women’s Promotion course, I gained invaluable skills and knowledge. With the confidence and expertise I’ve developed, I am now ready to seek employment, which will provide the start-up funds for my personal life project: opening a hairdressing salon.’
Sabrina Elina Razafindranivo, 17, in her second year of the course, was forced to leave school in the third grade because her parents could not afford for her to go.
She has learnt how to bake and cook at the centre, and said: ‘I dream of becoming a chef when I finish my training. I thank God for giving me an opportunity to study at the centre. I also thank Money for Madagascar for financing the centre’s activities, because it helps us to be able to have jobs in the future, so we will have financial autonomy.’
Jeanne Nantenaina, 16, was also forced to stop attending school because of her parents’ poverty. She is in her first year of the course, and has learnt cooking, embroidery, cutting and sewing, knitting, English, Maths, and family management.
She said: ‘I feel good studying at the centre because I have seen and learnt things I hadn’t been able to before, like embroidery.’
Resilient Forests and Livelihoods
Throughout our Resilient Forests and Livelihoods (RFL) programme, we ensure women and girls participate in and lead activities which deliver improved living standards to their communities and protect their unique, vibrant environment.
In our PROUD (French: FIERES) (Women Leading Innovations in their Environment for their Economic and Social Resilience) (FIERES Femmes menant des Innovations dans leur Environnement pour leur Résilience Economique et Sociale) project, women in Maintirano, in Western Madagascar, have led their communities’ responses to the impacts of climate change, as well as innovating and heading income-increasing initiatives, and working against gender-based violence and for positive discrimination.
Maintirano is the capital of the Melaky Region but relies on agriculture for food and incomes. Climatic hazards, including soil impoverishment through erosion, had trapped households in poverty.
This makes communities more vulnerable to extreme weather events: drought, flooding and erosion, all of which are happening more as a result of climate change. Outcomes include lack of food, as well as structural inequalities between women and men. Women had little or no access to resources or information, and low education levels.
PROUD trained 16 women as focal people for activities which enacted solutions to the impacts of climate change, and set up 16 Community Savings Groups (CEGs) a form of ‘savings and loan’ organisation in which members pay in and the money is used to fund each member’s project: 362 people – 338 of them women – joined and started initiatives.
Women who took part – like women in many parts of the world – reported that they had long had ideas about ways to improve their lives, but lack of funds and opportunities had prevented them. Some had not even been allowed to leave their homes.
PROUD provided each start-up funds, and a place to save some money they made.
Mrs Ravoajanahary, a member of the Miray Hina GEC explained: ‘Before, I was a very poor woman. My friends encouraged me to join the GEC, but I thought it was for the rich and I thought ‘how could I get money to contribute?’ but they continued to ask me to join. So, I worked hard doing day labour in the fields, and earned Ar5,000 per day. From this, I put aside Ar1,000 per day, and paid in Ar5,000 per week to the GEC, using the remaining Ar4,000 per day for our daily needs.
‘My work meant we were able to repay the GEC money even before the repayment deadline, then I was able to borrow a larger sum. I have a son who was hospitalised. Before, I couldn’t buy the medicine for my child but thanks to the GEC I paid the medical expenses for his treatment and he is cured now.’
Mrs Nadine, a member of the GEC Al Noor, said: ‘Thanks to the GEC I have been able to flourish in society because before my husband never let me leave the house without his permission. Now he has seen that I can earn money to help feed our family and take care of my children’s school fees because I have made a small commodity that gives me a net profit of Ar20,000 per day with the money I lent to the GEC.
‘He was proud of me and encouraged me to continue my activities because the change brought about by my activities met all our daily needs. We can now save the income earned by my husband for bigger projects for our family such as buying furniture and helping our children continue their studies.’
Malagasy people are by an accident of birth charged with protecting a rainforest upon which every person on Earth relies for survival, even as they are forced to strive for enough food to survive. With Money for Madagascar and our partners, Malagasy women are improving the world, one step at a time.
