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Credits UNICEF/UN0595852/Andrianantenaina
Published on June 2, 2022

Formative Evaluation of the Integrated Social Protection Programme in the South of Madagascar


Jointly Commissioned by UNICEF, ILO, UNFPA, WFP, and the Ministry of Population, Social Protection, and Promotion of Women (MPPSPF) in Madagascar funded by the UN Joint SDG Fund

Coming from the Malagasy word “to rescue,” the Faganavotse programme is one of the first integrated programme implemented by the United Nations in the South of Madagascar, funded by the UN Joint SDG Fund, as well as the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of the United Kingdom and Norway. Over a period of two years, the programme was implemented in three municipal districts in the south of Ambosasary by four United Nations Agencies including- UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP), International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).Under the Faganavotse programme implement many measures including: 9, 745 households benefitted from regular cash allowances of 100,000 Ariary (*estimated at 26 USD); 5,500 small-scale farmers in the Amboasary municipal district each received 385,000 Ariary after an onset of severe droughts in the region (3,500 farmers during the 2020-2021 season with an additional 2,000 farmers during the second year of the programme); 2,513 beneficiaries received  agricultural training during September 2021; and the Center of Counseling and Aid Services targeted municipalities to provide psychosocial, legal and/or medical support to 1,424 victims of violence and abuse (271 in 2021 and 1,207 in 2022).  

An independent evaluation was conducted to assess this pilot program and was able to provide recommendations from its implementations. The method of planning Faganavotse programme aligned with both Madagascar’s national social protections strategy and the One UN strategy. The programme was able to partially achieve its planned objectives. While all four components were in effect including sample group surveys targeting individuals with disabilities, work-sharing agreement, and a referral system, they were only implemented at the end of the project period (April 2022). Although the programme did not achieve full integration into the community, stakeholders considered the organizational structure of the programme to be effective. In addition, collaboration appears to be working well between implementing UN agencies. However, coordination with key ministries was less consistent.

This pilot programme has shown us that two years is simply not enough time to put in place systems and coordination mechanisms to deliver multiple interventions in a coherent way to the same intended target group. Particularly due to the emergency context of the south, as well as additional challenges posed by the COVID-19 Pandemic, implementations of the Faganavotse programme was made extremely difficult and required adaptations to the programme design in response to current uncertain situations. A series of recommendations were formulated based on findings from the evaluation.