Country Description:

Over three-quarters of Madagascar’s 17 million inhabitants live in rural areas. Seventy-two percent of Malagasy people live on less than $1 per day. Madagascar is emerging from a prolonged political dispute over the outcome of a December 2001 presidential election. This political crisis devastated the economy, further strained one of the world's top three "biodiversity hotspots," and disrupted an already weak health care system. The political crisis further worsened people's well being. In addition, during the eight-month crisis, illegal exporting of endangered species occurred. Such actions threaten long-term prospects for sustainable development in Madagascar, given the uniqueness of Madagascar's flora and fauna. With the political crisis resolved, Madagascar's prospects are now brighter than they have been for some time. Madagascar’s primary source of income is agriculture, a sector that employs eighty-eight percent of workers. While fifty percent of land is arable, less than ten percent is cultivated, due to lack of roads and irrigation infrastructure, credit and marketing, and farm equipment. Food crops of Madagascar are rice, maize, cassava, sweet potatoes and groundnuts. Cash crops include coffee, vanilla, cloves, sugarcane, cotton, cocoa and sisal. Madagascar is renowned for its biological diversity, although this is threatened by serious ecological problems including deforestation and soil erosion.

CARE opened operations in Madagascar in 1992 at a time when the country was experiencing a severe economic crisis. Currently, CARE's involve rural development programs focus on sustainable natural resource management and food and household livelihood security. CARE also implements urban programs that focus on health, environmental sanitation, social and personal empowerment, and income generation. CARE promotes safe water systems and safe practices for disinfecting and storing household water. CARE is also involved in risk and disaster management, including the development of disaster information systems, vulnerability assessment, risk mapping, early warning systems, and the execution of disaster preparation, planning and mitigation projects.