Setting up

On October 11, 2021, the Malagasy government through the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MINAE) submitted a request to IFAD to mobilize PARM technical assistance to support Madagascar in its strategy to strengthen the resilience of the Agro-Sylvo-Pastoral and Fishery sector to agricultural risks, which are becoming more frequent and severe.

To this end, in January 2022, IFAD-PARM welcomed this interest and announced the approval of PARM’s donors to provide technical assistance to the country.

In February 2022,  PARM Secretariat and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock agreed on on roadmap process for PARM interventions in Madagascar. In April 2022, PARM and MINAE signed an Aide-Mémoire outlining the main interventions of PARM’s assistance to the Malagasy government, as follows

• A first phase on the analysis and assessment and characterisation of agricultural risks, through a study based on the holistic methodology developed by PARM, either of the Malagasy agricultural sector, of one (or more) value chain, or on a geographical area (to be determined with MINAE). This first phase should be based on the validated agricultural risk profile and be complementary to other studies, notably on the analysis and evaluation of agricultural risks;
• A second phase on the identification of ARM tools in response to the priority risks identified in the previous phase;
• A third phase on knowledge sharing, capacity building and skills of key ARM actors;
• A fourth phase, which is the final goal of the previous steps, consists of the development and conceptualisation of concrete and fundable ARM projects and programmes (or the strengthening of existing ones), to be implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, and the mobilisation of donors for the implementation of the designed projects and programmes.

Risk Assessment

Jointly with MINAE, PARM elaborated the terms of reference for the risk assessment study (RAS) that aims to contribute to the creation of a detailed inventory and assessment of agricultural risks in the country, and to provide information on their likelihood and effects on the economy and agriculture. Unlikely to other PARM countries, the RAS study will use a value chain approach, to rigorously assess and prioritise the major risks affecting actors along the agricultural value chain (using a gender and age approach) and to identify actionable elements of an integrated risk management strategy for the value chain, using a gender lens along the chain.

Using IFAD procurement procedures and processes, PARM has launched the tender to get a service provider for the RAS study in Madagascar.

Design of Programme/Project

In April 2022, PARM, in constant dialogue with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MINAE), reached an agreement with the official signing of the concept note paving the way for the launch of the PARM process in the country.

The active discussion between PARM and the malgasy government enabled the identification of maize and peanut as the two value chains to be assessed during the RAS. The dialogue with the Government, technical and financial partners and PARM will continue during the entire process to identify key priorities for agricultural risk management, including knowledge management and capacity building processes to sensitize local actors, strengthen their knowledge of agricultural risk management and their capacity to manage risk and carry out institutional reforms.

Learning

To ensure the capacity building of local actors, PARM organized in November 2022 the first training cycle on ARM which aimed to raise awareness among stakeholders. The ultimate goal was to institutionalize ARM into university curricula and private sector practices (producer organizations and microfinance institutions). More than 40 participants attended the meeting. The second training cycle on ARM took place from 05 to 08 June 2023 with the presence of 39 participants, among which 56% of women. This workshop is a Training of Trainers (ToT) addressed to training structures, government officials, key players active in value chains, and financial institutions to train them on risks, risk assessment and ARM tools and strategies. The final aim is to integrate such knowledge into university curricula, training programs and the practices of farmers’ organizations (FOs) and the private sector, as well as to provide ongoing support for the ARM training needs of government bodies in Madagascar.

Sharing

On 4 May 2023, PARM organized a knowledge sharing and learning workshop bringing together national and international actors in the agricultural sector, to showcase initiatives on Agricultural Risk Management (ARM) that are related to the selected value chains in the country, and to foster policy dialogue between different public and private actors operating along these value chains.The following day, PARM presented and discussed the preliminary results of the VC-RAS focused on maize and peanut, during a technical workshop held in Antananarivo, that gathered the interministerial technical committee put in place by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MINAE). The VC-RAS aimed to identify and prioritize the main risks affecting the two commodities value chains using a quantitative and qualitative holistic approach and value chain methodology.