This is the second country strategy and programme evaluation carried out in Madagascar by the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE). The report reviews the joint work of IFAD and the Government of Madagascar from 2013 to 2019, covering six projects.

The programme focused on improving the incomes and living conditions of the rural poor. It also specifically included adaptation of production systems to climate change in promoting a resilient economy as one of its main guidelines.

According to the report’s findings, IFAD helped achieve encouraging results in improving access to land and irrigation, means of production, training, microenterprise support services, and markets.

The report also highlights some areas for improvement. The programme has contributed to natural resource management (NRM), climate change adaptation and mitigation for small producers. However, apart from hydro-agricultural developments, the actions remain limited compared to the scale of the challenges. Moreover, although the projects have fully engaged in actions to improve the economic status of women and young people, more can be done to promote these groups’ participation in decision-making or a more equitable distribution of the workload within households.

The report recommends, among other things, reinforcing the inclusion of very poor and highly vulnerable rural people in the country programme, enhancing actions in NRM and climate change adaptation and mitigation,strengthening the effectiveness of non-lending activities – such as partnership development and knowledge management – and improving the monitoring and evaluation of results and impacts.