Madagascar

Data and Digital Health, Health Care Financing, Human Resources for Health

Madagascar

Since 1983, we have worked in Madagascar to improve equitable access to high-impact, evidence-based health services. Our programs support the Ministry of Public Health at the national, regional, and district levels to strengthen the continuum of care for improved maternal, newborn, and child health and family planning. Our work helps ensure that health workers and community health volunteers can deliver quality care in facilities and villages across the country.

Community Health Volunteer Tsiraiky Abotono receives on-site supervision by the head his of health center
Community health volunteer uses the mobile health app

mHealth in Madagascar

Providing community health volunteers with mobile technology improves their ability to deliver quality health care. In Madagascar, what began as a pilot to guide community health volunteers through app-based malaria counseling and case management, has now been scaled up to more than 4,000 community health volunteers in 10 regions. The use of the app has helped keep malaria services accessible and reliable, despite the COVID-19 health crisis.

Overview

We support the Government of Madagascar as it works to reduce maternal, infant, and child morbidity and mortality by increasing access to quality integrated health care services and medicines and promoting the adoption of healthy behaviors. Our programs have supported  community health volunteers, helping them gain the skills and tools to raise awareness of healthy behaviors, monitor child growth, provide family planning and counseling services, treat common illnesses, and help respond to infectious disease outbreaks. Our work has helped build leadership, management, and governance skills and enable a culture of quality data collection and use within each district, ensuring harmonization of health data across community and national systems. In collaboration with partners, we are strengthening Madagascar’s health supply chain and increasing cost efficiency while enabling the health system to harness private-sector contributions, including those from retail pharmaceutical outlets. 

Related Focus Areas

Data and Digital HealthHealth Care FinancingHuman Resources for HealthLeadership, Management, and GovernanceMalariaPandemic Preparedness and ResponsePharmaceutical and Supply Chain ManagementPrimary Health CarePrivate-Sector EngagementWomen’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health
  1. News & Stories
  2. Resources

Meet the Community Health Volunteers Who Are Improving Access to Care in Madagascar

Community health volunteers (CHVs) play a critical role in bringing primary health care services closer to people, particularly women and children under the age of five. The USAID-funded ACCESS program supports more than 20,000 CHVs across 14 of Madagascar’s 23 regions. Meet five of them in this photo/video essay.

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We Did It Ourselves: How Localized Efforts Have Transformed Family Planning Services in Madagascar’s Highland Regions
Collaborative Efforts to Ensure Nutritional Supplies in Madagascar: USAID’s IMPACT and ACCESS Programs Strengthen the Fight Against Malnutrition
Midwife Saves Newborns, Builds Community Trust in Rural Madagascar

MSH in Madagascar

We support the Government of Madagascar as it works to reduce maternal, infant, and child morbidity and mortality by increasing access to quality integrated health care services and medicines and promoting the adoption of healthy behaviors.

Read more
View more resources
The ACCESS Program: Health System Strengthening Approach
The ACCESS Program: Fostering Social and Behavior Change
The ACCESS Program: Scaling Up Health Technologies
Lifelines in Action—Boosting Madagascar’s Medicine Supply Chain: In this short video, learn how training in sustainable stock management is reducing stockouts and helping district pharmacy providers, like Sandra, transform health outcomes in remote communities. Thanks to Sandra’s improved management skills, her district experienced zero stockouts of lifesaving malaria supplies in 2023.
Meet Fanja, a Midwife and Leader Helping to Transform Health Care in Rural Madagascar: Appointed in 2022, Fanja enlisted the help of her community to transform the health center into a clean, healthy, and motivating environment for both patients and staff. She is one of the thousands of health workers supported by the USAID-funded and MSH-led ACCESS program in Madagascar.
COVID-19 is not the first epidemic to hit Madagascar. The country has experienced several plague outbreaks, a measles outbreak, and even a polio outbreak within the last 5 years. USAID’s flagship program, ACCESS, works in close collaboration with Madagascar’s Ministry of Public Health to respond to these outbreaks and foster epidemic preparedness and response activities at all levels of the health system, efforts which have become even more crucial in the fight against COVID-19.
In Madagascar, community health volunteers provide essential health care services to isolated populations. They treat common childhood illnesses and address unmet needs for contraception. Community health volunteer Brunette from Vatovaty Fitovinany is using the CommCare mobile application to provide better family planning services to her clients.
“Ever since I started educating people about the benefits of mosquito bed nets, no one has died from malaria in my village,” says Leany Fameno in Madagascar. Fameno is one of the thousands of community health volunteers empowered by the MSH-led, USAID-funded ACCESS program with the tools and skills to foster social behavior change, including the proper use of bed nets.
With her community struggling to access proper health care, a local health volunteer and leader, Babera Georgette rallied her neighbors to build a new health center. Georgette had received training on community health messaging, leadership, gender equality, and promoting healthy behavior change through the USAID Mikolo project. And she led her friends and neighbors to get the job done, a vibrant example of self-reliant, community-led health care.
Malaria is still among the main causes of death in Madagascar, especially among young children in remote areas. Community health volunteers such as Zafy André are on the frontline in the fight against this deadly disease.
Community health volunteers save the lives of millions of rural populations in remote villages across Madagascar. They provide essential health care services to mothers and babies. Julienne is one of more than 7,500 community health volunteers supported by the USAID Mikolo project to improve health outcomes in isolated communities.
The USAID’s ACCESS Health Program, led by MSH, supports more than 18,000 community health volunteers in #Madagascar, who provide vital services in isolated communities throughout the country. Hear from one of them, a 22-year CHV veteran, in this illuminating video.

Related Projects

View Page: The Accessible Continuum of Care and Essential Services Sustained Program
Community Health Volunteer, Tsiraika Abotono. Photo credit Samy Rakotoniaina.
The Accessible Continuum of Care and Essential Services Sustained Program
Leadership, Management, and Governance
View Page: USAID Mikolo
A mother and her baby boy during a meeting with the saving and internal lending community - SILC group in Ankililoaka, Madagascar photo by Samy Rakotoniaina
USAID Mikolo
Data and Digital Health
View Page: Improving Market Partnerships and Access to Commodities Together
Technician with healthcare equipment stock.Photo credit Samy Rakotoniaina.
Improving Market Partnerships and Access to Commodities Together
Pharmaceutical and Supply Chain Management

Job Opportunities in Madagascar

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