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IOM Vision
IOM Madagascar works to ensure that migration to, from and within Madagascar is a choice, not a necessity. The Organization works closely with state actors, other UN agencies and non-profit organizations to provide direct assistance to migrants and internally displaced persons, to address the adverse drivers of migration and to reduce tensions in destination communities.
CONTEXT ANALYSIS
In 2022, Madagascar suffered several severe weather events, with economic growth further impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Southern Madagascar was particularly affected by droughts resulting in crop failure, growing food insecurity and internal migration.
Madagascar is ranked 173rd of the 191 in the 2022 Human Development Index. Between 2013 and 2019, the socio-economic impacts linked to Covid-19 erased the progress made in the fight against poverty. Since 2020, 1.8 million people have fallen into extreme poverty and in 2022, the poverty rate will reach 81 per cent, its highest level since 2012.
Madagascar is highly exposed to natural hazards such as cyclones, floods, and drought because of its location in the southwestern Indian Ocean basin. The country is ranked 167 out of 182 countries on the 2022 ND-GAIN climate vulnerability index. Dependence on rain-fed agriculture, poor water availability, and inadequate infrastructure, exacerbated by poverty, have reduced resilience to natural hazards. Roughly 80 per cent of the population is employed in agriculture, raising concerns over the effects of climate change including rising temperatures, reduced water availability through changing precipitation patterns and more extreme weather events, such as droughts, cyclones and floods. Madagascar was affected by an exceptional number of tropical cyclones in 2021 and 2022 with Ana, Batsirai, Emnati, Dumako, Gombe and Jasmine, which has led to significant infrastructure damage and an increase in the number of internally displaced persons. Although the 2023 cyclone season is expected to be close to or below the climate average, in the current context of global warming, it only takes one cyclone to have a catastrophic impact.
While internal seasonal migration has been common, recurring droughts, especially in southern Madagascar, continue to drive more permanent migration from affected areas to other parts of the country, particularly cities. As a result, Madagascar’s urban population is growing rapidly. IOM estimates that over 100,000 people yearly migrate from rural to urban areas, especially to the capital of Antananarivo, where over half of the country’s urban population lives. This results in 60-70 per cent of the informal constructions in the city being in slum-like conditions, contributing to unplanned urbanisation.
While Madagascar is a relatively safe state, violence is present in sometimes very brutal forms, as manifested by the rise of the Dahalo (rural banditry) phenomenon, criminality, and kidnapping, attributed to high levels of poverty and lack of employment opportunities, further accentuating the feeling of fear and insecurity in both urban and rural areas, and triggering small scale internal displacement. Large layers of the population perceive other forms of symbolic or latent daily violence that put their lives at stake because of their exposure to extreme poverty, the precariousness of uneducated and unemployed youth, etc.; therefore, this weakens the social balance of Malagasy society.
Madagascar is both a source and destination country for human trafficking, a situation exacerbated by economic challenges. Trafficking in Madagascar can take the form of sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, as well exploitation in the textile and fishing industries.