How savings groups and cooking classes are combating malnutrition and building climate resilience in Madagascar

Sandra spreads a colourful bed sheet on the floor of her home before arranging plates, utensils, and pots. Her husband, Jean Aimé, and children, Andoniaina, 10, and Mirindra, five, sit on the bed sheet as well, patiently awaiting their turn as they are served lunch.

On today’s menu: a hearty vegetable soup made of carrots, onions, potatoes, green beans, and zucchini, accompanied by rice.

Eating a nutritious meal like this is relatively new for the Randrianjatovos, who live on the outskirts of Ambatolampy, a city located in the Central Highlands of Madagascar. Like 80 percent of families in the country, the Randrianjatovos are farmers. With unpredictable weather patterns due to climatic changes, the family’s harvest – and as a result, their diets – have been negatively impacted.

Until a few months ago, Sandra rarely incorporated vegetables in her cooking. That changed when she participated in a training session to learn how to grow vegetables in an increasingly unpredictable climate, enabling the family to grow more vegetables to boost their nutrition. The training also included cooking demonstrations in which Sandra learned how to incorporate more nutrient-rich food in her family’s meals.

Since diversifying their diet, Sandra says her family members are more energetic. “I’ve seen the changes,” says Jean Aimé. “Before, our sons would get sick, but since we have been eating vegetables more often, we see they are in good health.”

Rice, food security, and climate change

Rice has been cultivated in Madagascar for centuries. It is a pillar in both children’s and adult’s diets. Despite its limited nutritional value, it is common to eat the starchy grain three times a day. Protein like chicken or meat is unaffordable to most, and traditionally, vegetables are seldom grown and consumed.

As a consequence, Madagascar has the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition globally, impacting more than half of the country’s children. According to the World Health Organization, nearly half of all deaths of children under five are due to malnutrition. Research published earlier this year by the University of Cambridge classifies this as an emergency.

The situation has been exacerbated by climate change. In recent years, Madagascar has experienced warmer temperatures, rainfall deficits during agricultural seasons, longer lean seasons, and year-round climate shocks. Cyclones, floods, and sandstorms are increasing in frequency and severity, leading to below-average harvests. According to the International Monetary Fund, one in three people (8.8 million people) experience food insecurity.

Nutrition-focused cooking demonstrations

In recent months, Sandra and other women in her village have attended cooking demonstrations to learn how to prepare nutrient-rich food like soup and soy milk. They are part of an initiative led by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) – through its local branch Organisation de Soutien pour le Développement Rural à Madagascar (OSDRM) – to combat malnutrition and support communities to build resilience to the climate change they are experiencing.

In 2022, AKF began working with community health volunteers to deliver nutrition training in villages. After training others on the theoretical aspects of nutrition and food diversification, “we practise it right away,” Léa Raharinomenjanahary, one of the volunteers, says about the demonstrations.

“Here in the countryside, people can eat sweet potatoes as their meal, or they may combine it with taro which gives them [similar nutrients],” she shares. “We tell them there should be a minimum of three ingredients in a meal, and [recommend consuming] five different ingredients in total daily.”

Through the demonstrations, Sandra and other participants like her neighbour Perle learn about some types of vegetables for the first time. Perle was unpleasantly surprised to learn about the tear-inducing power of onions.

“The onions attack the eyes,” she says, eyes watering as she chops an onion. “It makes you cry, but it’s so delicious.”

Léa says the recipes she teaches are “not always the traditional way of cooking,” but by slightly modifying how they cook, families can gain significant nutritional impacts over time. For example, instead of eating boiled sweet potato for lunch, Lea teaches women how to cook a sweet potato stew by adding simple, local ingredients, such as peanuts.

That’s one of the recipes Sandra learned and prepared for her family, which Jean Aimé enjoyed so much that he asked her to teach it to him, so he could cook it for the family too. Previously, the couple never knew that small changes like this could add up to positive outcomes for their family’s nutrition.

“Without knowledge and education, often we don’t know the benefits of crops and vegetables that are readily available,” says Etienne Andriamampandry, Partnerships Director at AKF in Madagascar. “That’s why we are working with the national nutrition programme in Madagascar to teach rural communities about the nutritional benefits of the crops already around them and what they could easily grow in this climate.”

Financial inclusion, sustained livelihoods

Sandra, who says the cooking demonstrations have radically changed how her family eats, accessed them through her membership in a community-based savings group (CBSG).

Since 2011, AKF has supported the establishment of nearly 3,700 CBSGs in Madagascar. Known worldwide by various names such as village savings and loan associations or savings and credit cooperative societies, these groups provide an alternative form of banking for traditionally unbanked people. Through the groups, which consist of up to 30 members from the same village, individuals contribute weekly savings, from which loans – for health emergencies, to buy books for school, or to help set up a business, for example – can be taken out with interest rates set by the members.

In addition, members of CBSGs can access valuable training on topics to support their health and livelihoods as they serve as an entry point for AKF to access individuals living in extreme poverty to provide additional services and support.

For example, Sandra and Perle have received training on regenerative farming techniques which have supported them in shifting away from chemical products to homemade biopesticides and biofertilisers, which has improved the quality of their vegetables and their health. They have also learned new farming techniques which have helped them increase the variety of crops they grow, including climate-resilient crops, and improve their diet.

“At the beginning, we planted only rice in our field,” explains Perle. “We were advised [through the training] to grow beans, rice, and corn. We were taught to plant three crops at the same time… Now we can have more crops and better quality.”

Their families benefit not only from increased food security, but from improved livelihoods too, as they sell the excess harvest at local markets. For some, this is their first experience earning enough money to purchase meat or invest in their children’s education, which supports holistic, long-term development.

“I’m happy because I can pay school fees for the children and buy what is needed for our everyday life,” says Sandra.

The Aga Khan Foundation implements programmes in Madagascar through its local branch, Organisation de Soutien pour le Développement Rural à Madagascar (OSDRM).

Written by Jacky Habib, a Nairobi-based freelance journalist reporting about social justice, gender, and humanitarian issues. Her work has been published by NPR, Al Jazeera, VICE, Toronto Star, and others. Read more at: www.jackyhabib.com