Attachments
HIGHLIGHTS
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Prolonged drought, recurrent floods, cyclones and epidemics impact the already vulnerable population living in Madagascar's south and southeast regions. Climate change has increased the frequency of disasters, and the coming El Niño weather pattern will intensify their impacts. A projected 2.3 million people will require humanitarian assistance in 2024.3
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UNICEF will provide a multisectoral, integrated and multilevel response to meet people's needs. The organization will promote a humanitarian–development nexus approach, strengthening its liaison with local authorities and communities through a stronger field presence; and enhance links with resilience programmes and development actors, especially in the south.
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UNICEF requires $41.4 million to provide humanitarian support to 1.1 million people (51 per cent women and girls), including 950,000 children and 119,000 people with disabilities.
KEY PLANNED TARGETS
114,000 children with severe wasting admitted for treatment
400,000 women and children accessing gender-based violence mitigation, prevention, response
370,000 children accessing formal or non-formal education, including early learning
46,500 households reached with UNICEF-funded humanitarian cash transfers
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION AND NEEDS
Approximately 2.3 million people, a third of the population of the south and southeast regions of Madagascar, will need humanitarian assistance in 2024, due to devastating cyclones in 2022 and 2023 and intense drought in the south from 2019 to 2022.10 Seventeen districts in these regions are classified as crisis level (integrated food security phase classification Phase 3 and above) for the 2024 lean season, starting in January. Potential social unrest due to the electoral process taking place from November to January 2024 could further disturb access to basic social services.
In the drought-prone southern regions, the situation has slightly improved but remains fragile. Access to water is slightly better compared with 2022.11 However, the number of people classified as being in emergency levels of water scarcity is above the pre-crisis average. Economic and social structures have been impacted by years of crisis, causing internal migration12 and use of negative coping mechanisms;13 this has exacerbated social protection needs and increased school dropout. Wasting levels remain high: 9.2 per cent of children under age 5 wasted.14
The southeastern regions continue to experience the consequences of two consecutive years of cyclones. Communities dealing with the lasting effects of tropical cyclones in 2022 were then hit by Tropical Cyclone Freddy in the first part of 2023, impacting their recovery. Nutrition needs are increasing: it is estimated that two landlocked districts will be in phase 4 (emergency levels) for acute malnutrition beginning in January 2024.15 Twenty basic health centres destroyed by the cyclones of 2022 and 2023 still need rehabilitation. Additionally, 40 per cent of WASH infrastructure was destroyed or contaminated by these cyclones, while open defecation persists in some areas of these hard-to-reach districts.
Madagascar continues to experience polio and malaria epidemics, which has increased the burden on already weak health services. More than 1 million malaria cases were reported in these six regions between January and July 2023, 60 per cent of the country’s cases, aggravating wasting levels.
As a result, about 550,000 children will experience wasting in 2024, of whom 114,000 will be severely wasted. And 1.4 million people will require WASH interventions. Rapid protection assessments have shown that the various crises have increased the risks of violence against children and their exploitation in regions already home to high rates of child marriage and child labour. Additionally, 440,000 people require gender-based violence and protection services.
The El Niño weather pattern will intensify droughts and floods in the south and southeast. El Niño may also impact other parts of the country, potentially causing drought in the northwest along with higher risks of cyclones.