Why we do it
A life free from poverty is within reach and yet unattainable for young people affected by poverty after leaving high school.
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97%
of ten-year-olds are unable to read and understand a short, age-appropriate text.¹
67%
of children drop out of primary school.²
97%
of teachers do not have a professional teaching qualification.²
81%
of people live below the international poverty line of USD 2.15/capita/day.¹
50%
of women aged between 20 and 24 state that they got married before the age of 18.²
Education Attainment Rate (EAR) tertiary level
In 2018, 1.05 % of Madagascans aged 25 and older from rural areas completed a bachelor's degree. Approximately nine times less than people from urban regions, where the average is 9.53 %.³ These data confirm the social inequality between urban and rural areas.
Development of Madagascar
Madagascar is the fifth largest island in the world and is located in the Indian Ocean off the coast of southern Africa. Despite considerable natural resources, the country has one of the highest poverty rates internationally, with a population of around 28 million (as of 2020).¹
Development prospects in Madagascar continue to be hampered by the country's low growth potential and its frequent, deep and persistent crises.¹
The situation in the village community of Fihaonana confirms the national development deficits. Fihaonana is located about 60 km northwest of the capital Antananarivo and is a 232.8 km² village community inhabited by 23'700 people (as of 2019), consisting of 18 subcommunities. People in Fihaonana mainly work as self-sufficient farmers, stonecutters or simple traders. With this hard work, the daily income is generally between MGA 3'000 and MGA 5'000 (approx. CHF 0.65 to CHF 1.10).⁴
Stakeholder analysis
Eight different groups of people have both positive and negative potential to influence the success of the project: young people (direct target group), parents or custodians (indirect target group), donors, employees, universities, tutors, inhabitants of Fihaonana and high schools in Fihaonana.
Previous projects and funding gaps in the surrounding area
Apart from ours, eleven projects are currently being implemented in Fihaonana. About half of them are agricultural. However, there are no relevant projects regarding long-term schooling. The only education project is a school attended by about a dozen students. To our knowledge, there is only one NGO in the country, Promes Madagascar, with a similar approach.⁴
Causes and effects
Lack of awareness of the value of education -> Choice of the least resistance
Low level of education -> Unqualified occupation
Lack of career choice information -> Wrong career decisions
High study costs -> Social inequality
Unknown extent of the problem -> Catastrophically poor educational support for disadvantaged people
Urban-rural differences in mentality -> Social division
¹ World Bank. (07.10.2022). Madagascar: Overview. Retrieved on the 8th of March 2023 from https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/madagascar/overview.
² UNICEF. (Novembre 2018). Challenges and opportunities for children in Madagascar. Retrieved on the 8th March 2023 from https://www.unicef.org/madagascar/en/reports/challenges-and-opportunities-children-madagascar.
³ UNESCO Institute for Statistics. (March 2023). Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) data. Retrieved on the 8th March 2023 from http://sdg4-data.uis.unesco.org/.
⁴ Own on-site research in March 2023.