Impact
The Madagascar PHE Network supports its members’ monitoring, evaluation, learning & research efforts to collate impact data, strengthen the evidence base for this holistic approach, deepen understanding of its added value and inform improvements to programming.
Key impact statistics
Locally managed marine / forest areas strengthened
Complementary livelihood diversification opportunities offered
People reached in biodiverse and under-served areas
Integrated health-environment outreach tools in use
Health service delivery points created or improved
Couple years of contraceptive protection provided
Community testimonies from PHE sites across Madagascar

Selatiny - Andranolava, Morondava
The link? We can’t be healthy if we don’t have enough food. There are no longer enough crabs. Giving birth all of the time is also difficult. The quantity of crabs must be greater than or equal to the number of mouths to feed.

Fortinée - Manantenona, Sambava
For the environment to support health, it depends on how we act with it. In this way, we take responsibility for the health of our community.

Bruno Souvenir - Ifaty, Tulear
When we talk about health, we must keep in mind that people go out to the sea to work. When people are in good health, they can protect the reserve. We created the reserve to increase our catches. If the reserve is weak then catches decline and there are problems: scarcity of seafood leads to poverty and malnutrition.

Mino - Andranolava, Morondava
I started using contraception after my second child and following four miscarriages. I decided to use it to create a little space in my life. It’s better when you have more freedom. When children are raised well, you don’t have to take so much care of them any more. You can go to the fields and do the usual work. I feel good. I am healthy.

Feroly - Ifaty, Tuléar
What more can I ask than to go to work and achieve my personal goals. If the coral reefs are destroyed, there will be no more fish. If there are no more fish, our life is extinguished. And when diseases come, we would not be able to get out of this situation because we would have no money.

TotoasimpaNoel - Manantenona, Sambava
When people choose to use contraception, environmental protection goes well. If I have 10 children while my land yields only two sacks of rice, I will not be able to feed them. My children might be tempted to enter protected areas during the lean season. They would destroy not only our own life, but the life of a whole community.

Alphonsia - Ifaty, Tuléar
What I gained from using a contraceptive method is the ability to do all of the activities I want. No more struggles. I can contribute to meeting our needs.

Kainto Justin - Andranomavo, Diego
A healthy population, a community {fokontany} in development, a protected environment. This is the winning trio for me.

Charles - Andranolava, Morondava
Mangrove increases production. The growth of mangrove protects all of the life that is inside : shrimps, crabs and some fish. In addition, it stores natural products such as honey. All of our life.

Michael - Manantenona, Sambava
Health and the environment are interdependent. Our youth association is mobilised to improve the environment and health at the same time, the latrines, and not to throw trash in the street. All this to ensure community health.

Pascal - Andranolava, Morondava
Let’s talk about the spacing of births so that we don’t destroy things. Otherwise we may adopt bad practices to take care of our children. We may disregard customary ways of caring for the environment in order to feed our little ones.

Goretic - Manantenona, Sambava
I think that health and the environment are one. It is through the environment that we breathe purely. We have our resources such as water and especially drinking water.

Mariette - Maintimbato, Maroantsetra
Before, I struggled to make ends meet to take care of my home. By using contraception, I’m able to take care of my children and to feed them well. I would like them to have a better future. That’s why they are fewer of them.

Noel - Andranomavo, Diego
Life comes from the environment. Everything is the environment. The air we breathe, the cleanliness, the trees, everything.

Jakoba - Andranolava, Morondava
The environment is everything that makes us live : water, mangrove forest … If the environment is destroyed, the next generations will have hard time surviving, no means for livelihood.

Nivo - Tsiriambolmena, Fianarantsoa
A healthy environment ensures people’s health.

Raymond - Beremby, Fianarantsoa
The protection of the environment contributes to people’s health and to the health of farm animals.

Noriette - Maintimbato, Maroantsetra
We’re thinking mostly about our health while combining clove nursery sales and the establishment of fishery reserves. We have increased our revenues. We put some into a community box to ensure the health of people.

Kotozafy Jean Pierre - Beremby, Fianarantsoa
If the forest is destroyed, by slash-and-burn or other practices that it should have been protected against, water sources will be broken and our life with it.

Freddy - Maintimbato, Maroantsetra
From the moment we started protecting the environment, our health improved. The community-managed fishery is flourishing and produces a lot.

Berthin - Vohitsaoka, Fianarantsoa
We cannot separate people, health and the environment. They are linked to one another. The fact that people steal from tree nurseries is already a proof that they like them – it’s not to destroy them. They steal to plant.

Berthin - Maintimbato, Marontsetra
The environment is among the things that help us stay healthy. They are complementary. Water is a source of life. If we cut the trees on the uplands, the water will disappear.

Rasana Esther - Tsiriambolamena, Fianarantsoa
For me the most significant changes are reforestation and rice growing. When you produce, you can have healthy life. If not, the diseases come.

Betafiana - Maintimbato, Maroantsetra
The degradation of the environment will have strong impact on the health of the population. We could catch different diseases, rain water will be missing, the weather will become dry, the water points will dry up.

Laurent - Andranomavo, Diego
We need reforestation whether on the plateaus or in the sea. Taking the mangroves destroys the seashore. It kills the fish that hatch their eggs inside, seafood decreases and so does our income.

Christine - Vohitsaoka, Fianarantsoa
There is not enough water when the trees are missing. Trees protect the crops. A green land is good for agriculture. Good food and rainwater provide for the wellbeing of people.

Jean Claude - Andranomavo, Diego
Health comes from the environment, from the forest. We do not only talk about the sea.

Orlin - Ankingabe, Ambanja
The environment is a part of our health. If these positive links between health and the environment continue, our children won’t be in difficulty and the climate will become as before.

Elida - Ivovona, Diego
Trees improve the quality of crops and provide us with water. If people run out of water, they die. A healthy person can go to work and support themself.

Befanony - Ankingabe, Ambanja
If the trees did not exist, the air we breathe would be polluted. The forest has positive impacts on us. Polluted gases are produced by human beings. The forest makes the air pure.

Noeline - Ifaty, Tuléar
People suffer when the environment is destroyed. All our means for subsistence are dissolved. Then comes poverty. There is almost no food. We get sick. Healthy people are full of energy.

Adeline - Ankingabe, Ambanja
Mangroves provide benefits. Fish and crabs come from there. All products that make us live. They are for us a source of income.

Feresy - Ifaty, Tulear
I’ve liked seeing tangible changes. We stopped bad habits. The corals have grown and the fish come back to these places which means that they have something to eat again. We can fish and provide for our needs.

Marie-Jeanne - Ankingabe, Ambanja
The forest is like a barrier. But there are still those who are reluctant to restore mangroves, to plant trees, yet when the disease strikes, it hits everyone without exception.

Jean Claude - Ifaty, Tulear
Diseases and all our worries, we know that all of this is the result of not having protected the environment.

Masindraza - Ambanja
Trees on the highlands provide many benefits. The forest was destroyed before. So the highland soil pours into the rice fields. The trees that were supposed to retain the soil were no longer there. No rice cultivation is possible.

Sydonie - Ifaty, Tulear
I think health will improve a lot if we protect the environment. The number of sick person decreases with the number of charcoal makers.