Madagascar, Antananarivo, 26 October 2022 – A team from the Australian Embassy in Mauritius led by Ms Keara Shaw, Chargé d’Affaires is in Madagascar, to visit two Australian Aid-funded projects to promote women’s health and rights and those of adolescents and youth in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA.

The team will visit the maternity ward of the Antohomadinika Basic Health Center in Antananarivo, rehabilitated and equipped with solar panels to ensure constant electricity supply. This, to ensure service continuity which was significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, thus limiting essential and life-saving services which are central to advancing women’s well-being and gender equality. The team will equally pay a visit to Radio FANABEAZANA, in Antananarivo, where educative programmes for adolescents and youth have been conceived and broadcast with the support of the aid agency.

The maternal health project dubbed “Improvement of the quality of services at the maternity ward of Antohomadinika Health Centre, in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in the City of Antananarivo", was funded at 43,627 USD for a two-year period starting from October 2019, while the youth project, “Promotion of Sexual and Reproductive Health of school-going adolescents and young people”, was funded at 27,000 USD for 12 months from February 2021.

Making an appraisal of the project, Ms Shaw said, “the safety and equality of women and girls is a fundamental human right. Australia is committed to ensuring sexual and reproductive health rights. Women’s and girls’ autonomy and wellbeing are crucial to their meaningful participation in all areas of society including economic activity. We are really pleased to see that this project with UNFPA has succeeded in promoting the wellbeing of women and girls.”

Among some of the key achievements, by end of 2020, 87 women were able to give birth safely at the rehabilitated health centre, up from 57 previously, and 1,206 others had access to family planning services including 108 new users, up from 302 during similar period in 2019. 

“These women and girls, adolescents and youth, in disadvantaged communities are most often left out and we are grateful to the Government of Australia for supporting the implementation of these projects to facilitate their access to family planning as well as reproductive health rights and services” Koffi Kouame, the Representative of UNFPA in Madagascar added.

Additionally, radio content on comprehensive sexuality education for adolescents and youth was broadcast through the radio programme, "Hary Fahalalàna, Hary Fomba" (HFHF). Slightly over 1,000 young animators and peer educators, who are members of the HFHF club were trained and close to 5,000 school-going youth and over 65,000 listeners including young people with disabilities have so far been reached with this content, also broadcast across 22 radio stations in other localities and regions.

For more information please contact:

Australian Embassy in Mauritius:

   Mr Abhai Neermaull, Program Officer: +230 5256 1140; abhai.neermaull@gov.au

UNFPA Madagascar:

Ms Melvis KIMBI : International Communication Consultant; +261 32 23 635 08; kimbi@unfpa.org

Ms Onja Rabary : Spécialiste de Programme Partenariat et Mobilisation de Ressources; rabary@unfpa.org