Madagascar Reports
 | Baseline Study: “Samy Gasy”Recovering from years of political instability, Madagascar suffers from institutional crisis and structural violence. Media sources continue to shape levels of social cohesion, notably among youth, fueling distrust and frustration. It is in this context that SFCG implemented an 18-month long project financed by the US government called “Samy Gasy: Improving Governance through Enhanced Accountability”. The goal of the project was to promote dialogue and collaboration between principal actors such as civil society groups, media professionals, academics, and people of influence, through the reduction of adversarial approaches. As part of the project cycle, SFCG conducted a baseline study in the spring of 2017 in six provinces, reaching 529 people including elected officials, civil servants, intellectual leaders, law enforcement and media professionals. The goal of the baseline was to provide indicators and recommendations for the implementation of the project. Although there is a common understanding that collaboration and dialogue are needed in order to achieve a satisfactory solution that would suit all actors, the capacity of all actors to come together remains debatable. Moreover, all groups noted that law enforcement authorities tend to exacerbate tensions, reducing chances for peace and social cohesion. The baseline recommended to support work between law enforcement and others, notably civil servants who have been very wary of the capacity of their counterparts to engage in dialogue. |
| “Mazava” Conflict and Risk Evaluation, May 2017The mining company Ambatovy has been extracting nickel and cobalt in Madagascar since 2012, this venture had important socio-economic effects in the areas around the extraction site and the pipeline, some of which led to violent conflict. In response to these emerging conflicts, Ambatovy entered into a partnership with Search for Common Ground to engage in a peacebuilding project, “Mazava”. The first phase of the “Mazava” project was carried out in 2015/2016. In anticipation of the project’s phase II, SFCG took the opportunity to reflect on and study the evolving conflict dynamics, particularly the risks to social cohesion and how information and rumors spread. This resulting report identifies the unifiers that local communities gather around: common values, religion, and mutual support when facing personal difficulties such as death or illness. On the other hand, the target communities also identified common conflicts across regions: land disputes, intergenerational differences in terms of values, and conflicts emerging from power abuses. 29% of respondents think the mining company’s presence and work is a cause of the land conflicts. 34% think politicians – and 41% security forces – play a role in conflicts related to power abuses. The main risks identified were youth delinquency due to unemployment, youth exclusion from decision-making, and land disputes, which were all related to the presence of the company and its relations with the community. The report also focuses on how information from the company reaches the communities and circulates within them. Only 39% of the population say they receive information on the company; the main sources of information are local media, company social agents, and local traditional authorities. But most people are unhappy with the lack of good information and are aware that much of the available information is in fact circulation of rumors, often coming from the company’s ex-employees. The report therefore recommends to facilitate community access to transparent and verified information about and from the company, and to strengthen the main sources’ knowledge of the mining system. |
| Title: “Promotion of Key Family Practices” Final Evaluation – Madagascar – February 2017Search for Common Ground implemented the project “Promoting Key Family Practices through Regional Communication Strategies for Child Survival, Development, Education and Protection” between August 2014 and March 2016, funded by UNICEF and UNFPA, in Analanjirofo, Anosy and Atsimo Andrefana regions of Madagascar. The project was part of the development of national communication plans aiming at promoting behavior changes in favor of children’s rights. This final evaluation report outlines the main results of the project. Training participants increased their knowledge in communicating on the Key Family Practices. The local radios and community organizations were efficient in terms of broadcasting the different programs and more than 60 000 people were also reached through community events. Overall, 87% of the population interviewed had listened to at least one SFCG “product”. The report presents visible effects: in the education sector, the findings show that 89% of the population who listened to the messages adopted and practiced “sending children to school who were between the ages of 6 and 11 years old”. Protection aspects were also well received, as 84% adopted immediate actions to behave non-violently towards children, and 96% rejected early marriage for children younger than 18 years old. In terms of sustainability, the project allowed for the development of collaboration mechanisms between WASH, health and education sectors and the media, which will last after the end of the implementation. One of the main recommendations is to increase capacity building activities and promote skills transfer from SFCG to national official or non-governmental actors; this is now being carried out by SFCG in the framework of a new UNICEF project. |
| Madagascar Progress Indicator November-December 2016This report tracks the progress of indicators of the project Countering the Resource Curse: Promoting good governance and human rights in the extractive sector in Madagascar between November and December 2016. It serves to monitor three project activities: roundtables, training sessions and the production of the radio show « Tokontany Iraisana ». The methodology was mixed with 16 key informant interviews conducted with training participants, an evaluation sheet submitted to roundtable participants and a listener survey. Recommendations include the capacity-building of CSOs, as well as agents from the public and privates sectors, put in place a feedback system for radio program listeners and reinforce the promotion of the radio show to reach wider audience ratings. |
| Search – Madagascar 2016 Annual ReportThis report is available in French. SFCG est opérationnel à Madagascar depuis 2011 et a été officiellement reconnu par le gouvernement de Madagascar en mars 2012. Depuis, SFCG Madagascar a assis sa notoriété dans le domaine de la promotion du dialogue et de la communication Common Ground (participative, modérée et orientée vers la recherche de solutions) entre différents acteurs clés. Notre mission est de mettre en évidence les racines des divisions et des conflits à Madagascar et trouver avec les parties prenantes des solutions durables en promouvant le dialogue et la coopération. Pour cette années 2016, SFCG Madagascar s’est fixé 4 objectifs annuels dont : – Contribuer à améliorer la confiance et à améliorer les relations entre les forces armées, les dirigeants locaux et les communautés – Promouvoir la bonne gouvernance et les valeurs démocratiques, en particulier chez les jeunes, et accroître la redevabilité des dirigeants et la participation des citoyens en promouvant un journalisme responsable et en facilitant le dialogue entre les dirigeants élus et les citoyens – Créer et renforcer des plateformes de dialogue entre la société civile, le secteur privé et les représentants étatique afin de promouvoir l’accès égal aux ressources naturelles et économiques. |
 | Promoting communication, dialogue and reinforce confidence around the Qit Madagascar Minerals mining site in Fort-DauphinThis report is a baseline evaluation funded by Qit Madagascar Minerals (QMM) aimed at promoting communication, dialogue and reinforce confidence around the Qit Madagascar Minerals mining site in Fort-Dauphin implemented since June 2016. The project follows from a previous collaboration between SFCG and the mining company since November 2013. The methodology used for this baseline study was mixed and involved 459 research participants. |
| Progress IndicatorCountering the Resource Curse: Promoting good governance and human rights in the extractive sector in Madagascar is a project launched by SFCG in July 2016. Its main goal is to enhance the UN Voluntary Principles (VP) on Security and Human Rights by building the capacity of key stakeholders and monitoring discourses of the media on extractive industries in Alaotra Mangoro and Anosy regions. This study is qualitative and involved focus group discussion and roundtable feedback sheets. It provided to formulate an action plan for each region and to identify VP on Security and Human Rights champions among the participants to implement the plan. |