Archive for: Madagascar


This study assessed changes in contraceptive use and fertility between 2009 and 2013 in the Velondriake locally managed marine area of southwest Madagascar where marine conservation organization Blue Ventures began implementing an integrated health-environment program in 2007. The proportion of sexually active women aged 15 to 49 years using hormonal contraception and/or condoms during last intercourse increased more than twofold from 25 percent in 2009 to 59 percent in 2013. The number of births in the last 12 months per 1,000 women of reproductive age declined by 28 percent over the same period from 196 in 2009 to 141 in 2013. This program increased access to family planning for previously under-served communities, leading to uptake of modern contraceptives with an associated decline in fertility. These results suggest that this program has enabled couples to avoid unintended pregnancies, thereby bolstering local marine conservation initiatives.

Year: 2017

Source: Studies in Family Planning

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    This blog post is based on a talk given by Dr. Yvette Ribaira at a PHE event at the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) in Rwanda in November, 2018. She recounts her experiences in Madagascar that inspired her to get involved with PHE work.

    Year: 2018

    Source: John Snow, Inc.

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      This report summarizes the results of a five-year population, health, and environment (PHE) program in three environmental corridors and threatened ecosystems in Madagascar. This implementation science research was carried out by the Environmental Health Project (EHP) on behalf of USAID to “determine if activities implemented in an integrated manner achieved better results than if the activities were implemented separately.” The purpose of PHE programs is to target sector-specific projects to foster greater collaboration and amplify the integration of the activities to a more efficient level. The report compares the results from the post-intervention surveys and the baseline surveys to explore the idea that integrated programs are more effective than those with a single-sector approach. In this report 29 PHE indicators are included that clearly show higher outcomes in integrated communities than non-integrated ones.

      Year: 2005

      Source: USAID | Environmental Health Project

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        This document reviews Conservation International’s PHE projects in some of the most remote, biologically diverse areas of the world, including the Cardamom Mountains Conservation Landscape (CCL) in southwestern Cambodia, the Zahamena-Mantadia Biological Corridor in eastern Madagascar, and the Sierra Madre Biodiversity Corridor (SMBC) in northern Philippines. CI’s PHE projects achieved results in both health and conservation – such as providing health services; training local health care professionals in health and conservation; promoting behavior change and educating youth about the importance of conservation; and building the capacity to pursue alternative livelihoods through improved forest management. This document demonstrates how CI, and global partners, have worked to improve the lives of remote, vulnerable populations in some of the most biodiversity-rich environments by improving human wellbeing while also conserving vital biodiversity.

        Year: 2008

        Source: Conservation International

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          The first PHE workshop for Tanzania and other East African countries was held in June 2005 in Kigoma. It was jointly hosted by EngenderHealth/ACQUIRE Project and JGI/TACARE Project, and attended by 45 participants from East Africa and Madagascar. The goals of the workshop were to: (1) develop both a conceptual framework for PHE integration and an implementation strategy, and (2) develop a clear definition of the programmatic value-added and expected outcomes from implementing an integrated PHE approach. Workshop discussions focused on four areas: justifying, explaining, and clarifying the rationale and concepts that underlie PHE integration; receiving and discussing local and international (mainly Madagascar) experiences, including past, current and planned activities and case studies to illustrate and confirm the practical feasibility of PHE integration programs; practicing application of the theoretical and field experiences through small working group sessions; and discussing and clarifying plans for follow-up actions to move PHE integration forward in Tanzania and beyond.

          Year: 2005

          Source: EngenderHealth | Jane Goodall Institute

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            Filmed in Madagascar, this 9-minute documentary explores the linkages between population growth and environmental destruction in one of the world’s most biologically unique places. Finding Balance profiles Voahary Salama, a local organization working to preserve the island’s rainforest by integrating health and family planning into conservation efforts. This innovative approach to conservation and development addresses the needs of women in remote rural areas while offering hope for the sustainability of critical ecosystems and the biodiversity they shelter.

            It is accompanied by a factsheet that explains population-environment links, and provides background on Madagascar and Voahary Salama.

            Year:

            Source: PAI

            Video | Factsheet

              From April 2011 to July 2012, Conservation International (CI) Madagascar implemented a Population, Health and Environment (PHE) project called Tokantrano Salama in the Ambositra-Vondrozo Forest Corridor (COFAV) in southeastern Madagascar. With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, CI Madagascar and partners Voahary Salama and Ny Tanintsika increased access to family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) services, improved access to clean water sources and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services, and promoted the benefits of integrated PHE approaches both within Madagascar and to the global PHE community. Using this integrated approach, CI and partners helped communities to improve their health at the same time they improved their water sources and the environment in this fragile and unique ecosystem.

              Year: 2012

              Source: Conservation International

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                Climate change impacts fall disproportionately on the world’s poorest, most marginalised communities, particularly those highly dependent on direct use of natural resources, such as subsistence fishing communities. Vulnerability to climate change involves social and ecological factors, and efforts to reduce it and build long-term resilience must target both. In Madagascar, generalised strategies developed at the national level address vulnerability, adding to a variety of international initiatives. Yet, such high-level planning inevitably remains vague and indeterminate for most of the island’s coastal communities, with little meaningful implementation on the ground. Therefore, local measures to build resilience and adaptive capacity are critical to ensure that resource-dependent communities are able to cope with the immediate and long-term effects of climate change. Examination of an integrated population-health-environment (PHE) programme in Madagascar, comprising a locally-managed marine area (LMMA) and socio-economic development activities, illustrates how practical initiatives can contribute to building immediate and long-lasting resilience and adaptive capacity. Such community-based approaches should play a key role in adaptation measures within the western Indian Ocean region, where many coastal communities live in severe poverty on the front line of a rapidly changing climate.

                Year: 2012

                Source: Western Indian Ocean Journal of Marine Science

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                  This case study, produced as part of JSI’s Best Practices in Scaling Up series, describes the collaboration of population, health, and environmental (PHE) interventions to strengthen development efforts in Madagascar. In the early 2000s, JSI collaborated with various partners to apply PHE initiatives to address inhabitants’ limited access to health care, family planning services, and agricultural extension services. The PHE program noticeably improved key health indicators and land-use practices during its span, and served as a model for other programs seeking to link health and environmental initiatives.

                  Year: 2008

                  Source: John Snow, Inc.

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                    Terrestrial wildlife is the primary source of meat for hundreds of millions of people throughout the developing world. Despite widespread human reliance on wildlife for food, the impact of wildlife depletion on human health remains poorly understood. This paper looks at a cohort of 77 preadolescent children (under 12 years of age) in rural northeastern Madagascar and shows that consuming more wildlife was associated with significantly higher hemoglobin concentrations. The research demonstrates that removing access to wildlife would induce a 29% increase in the numbers of children suffering from anemia and a tripling of anemia cases among children in the poorest households. The well-known progression from anemia to future disease demonstrates the powerful and far-reaching effects of lost wildlife access on a variety of human health outcomes, including cognitive, motor, and physical deficits. The research quantifies costs of reduced access to wildlife for a rural community in Madagascar and illuminates pathways that may broadly link reduced natural resource access to declines in childhood health.

                    Year: 2011

                    Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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