AfDB invests in empowering women and youth in Madagascar ‎

14 Juillet 2020

Antananarivo, Madagascar, July 14 (Infosplusgabon) - In Madagascar, the African Development Bank (AfDB) is prioritizing the empowerment of women and youth.

The AfDB media outlet reported that the projects, funded in Madagascar, also called the Big Island, cover all areas of development: energy, transport infrastructure, agriculture, the private sector, water and sanitation, training, among other areas.

It said investments have the stated objective of improving the lives of women and young people by contributing to the development of the country.

Several projects with a high socio-economic impact support this ambition of the Bank.

The Bas Mandoky development project, in partnership with the Malagasy government, with a total cost of US$ 61.7 million, on an area of ​​9,000 hectares, is part of it.

Development works on the Bas Mangoky irrigated perimeter, supplied with water by the Mangoky (822 km), the second longest river in Madagascar, have favoured the drainage of water for the irrigation of rice plots.

Phase 1 was completed in 2015 and phase 2 (in 2020) will be completed over a decade.

It said that Phase 2 should allow an additional annual production of 44,000 tonnes of paddy rice and 2,400 tonnes of cape peas.

The direct beneficiaries are estimated at 45,000 people, of whom approximately 51.5% are women. The increase in agricultural production could have the effect of increasing annual income per beneficiary from US$624 to US$1,503.

Bertine Mariazy, a farmer in Tanandava, a rural commune in the Morombe district in south-west Madagascar, says: "I have been able to increase my income in recent years by purchasing plots of land. My family and I now own four cultivable hectares.”

Thanks to her growing income, Mariazy was able to provide education for her daughters.

“The first one thus trained at Tulear to become a nurse. The second is at the agricultural college in the neighboring town,” she adds with pride.

The situation is similar for many other women in the region, engaged in rice cultivation, who have been able to acquire land, double their production and increase their purchasing power. 73% of employed women are in agriculture.

The programme for the promotion of youth entrepreneurship in agriculture and agro-industry (PEJAA), launched in 2018 in Antsirabe, also responds to this imperative of empowering young people on the Big Island.

After 12 months of training in agricultural value chains, 35 young “agripreneurs”, 51% of them women, received their training certificate on April 23, 2019, as well as a check to help installation and for their projects.

In total, 320 young “agripreneurs” will be trained and financed up to almost 10,000 euros, at a preferential rate of 9.5%, guaranteed 100% by the fund set up by BNI bank, with the support of the African Development Bank.

In 2015, the Bank launched the Gender Equality in Africa Index, with the aim of providing key gender statistics across the African continent. Index aims to guide appropriate policies and investments to make gender equality a reality across the continent

Under the leadership of AfDB President, Akinwunmi Adesina, the G7 leaders had granted, at the Biarritz Summit in August 2019, a global loan of US$ 251 million to the Bank in support of the AFAWA initiative for the empowerment of women in the continent.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/MOP/GABON2020

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