A disaster is unfolding in Madagascar

Madagascar is facing a food and humanitarian crisis that is drawing the attention of international agencies, governments and multilateral organisations. Or at least it should be. After the brief spotlight generated by the October unrest - which we covered in detail here - the African country has once again slipped off the international news radar. And yet, for some time now, a combination of climatic, structural and economic factors has pushed large segments of the population into severe food insecurity, at a moment when traditional international aid mechanisms are undergoing significant changes. Today, prospects are becoming even more worrying. This is why our work on this extraordinary island is becoming increasingly important.

All the photographs in this article come from our projects in Madagascar.

The scale of the emergency

The southern regions of Madagascar, known as the Grand Sud, have been experiencing persistent drought conditions for months, drastically reducing agricultural productivity. According to recent analyses, the drought affecting this area is among the most severe of the past decades, disrupting multiple consecutive planting seasons and limiting access to water for both domestic and agricultural use.

In 2025, the World Food Programme (WFP) and other United Nations agencies estimate that at least 1.7 million people are living in conditions of severe food insecurity in southern Madagascar. Of these, around 558,000 are children under the age of five who are at risk of — or already affected by — acute malnutrition.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), several areas of the Grand Sud are classified at Phase 3 (food crisis), with tens of thousands of people in Phase 4 (emergency).

As early as 2021, the United Nations World Food Programme and other agencies had already warned of alarming food security conditions, with more than 1.3 million people in need of emergency food and nutritional assistance due to the combined effects of drought, soil erosion and crop failures.

Climate and agricultural vulnerability

Rural livelihoods in Madagascar are highly dependent on climate conditions: around 80% of the population relies on subsistence agriculture and seasonal rainfall for survival. Scientists agree that natural climate variability in the region has historically been significant, but prolonged droughts, combined with irregular rainfall and cyclones, are contributing to growing agricultural instability.

While some studies emphasise that it is not possible to attribute every drought event solely to climate change, other observers point to an increase in extreme and unpredictable conditions as part of broader climate trends.

Cuts to international aid

One factor highlighted by field reports and United Nations data is the significant reduction in international humanitarian assistance, largely as a result of cuts implemented by the United States.

In 2025, overall humanitarian aid to Madagascar fell by approximately 70% year-on-year, according to the UN’s humanitarian operations coordinator. A substantial portion of this decline is linked to a sharp reduction in US contributions, which dropped from around $78 million to less than $6 million for the country.

These cuts have had a direct impact on the operational capacity of non-governmental and multilateral organisations. In the Grand Sud, around 15 local NGOs have ceased operations, and several major organisations — including Catholic Relief Services — have significantly reduced their staff presence.

At a global level, the decline in Official Development Assistance (ODA) has also been documented by OECD analyses, which point to a marked reduction in spending on humanitarian relief and development programmes between 2023 and 2025. Historically, the United States has accounted for a substantial share of these resources.

International sources also report that cuts to USAID programmes and other US assistance mechanisms have affected not only emergency food aid, but also health, agriculture, climate resilience and other sectors that are critical in the long term.

The contraction of funding has made it more difficult to plan and sustain interventions. OCHA (the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) has reported challenges in maintaining operational staff in the field and in launching global funding appeals, due in part to increasingly restrictive eligibility criteria for food crises requiring international financing.

The situation is further compounded by fragile health conditions: in addition to food insecurity, some southern areas have reported rising cases of malaria, placing additional strain on already limited health infrastructure.

To address complex crises such as Madagascar’s, international organisations stress the need to balance immediate humanitarian assistance with medium- and long-term investments in rural resilience. These include water resource management systems, more adaptive agricultural technologies and social protection networks. Multilateral programmes are attempting to maintain minimum levels of support, but available resources remain well below estimated needs.

Trees, resilience and adaptation tools

In the context of food crises driven by multiple factors — climatic, economic and structural — it becomes essential to consider adaptation and sustainable development tools that go beyond emergency response.

Trees, and more broadly agroforestry approaches developed in collaboration with rural communities, represent a key component of strategies aimed at strengthening ecological and economic resilience. In areas exposed to prolonged water stress, appropriate tree species can help to:

• improve soil water retention, reducing erosion and stabilising crops;

• provide diversified food and income through fruit, timber and secondary products;

• create shade and more favourable microclimates for crops that are particularly sensitive to drought.

Reforestation and sustainable land management projects are not immediate solutions to hunger, but form part of an integrated development approach that enhances communities’ capacity to cope with climatic shocks and environmental variability. Alongside these efforts, Treedom — through its partner Tsyriparma — seeks to support broader, complementary interventions.

Treedom promotes initiatives based on these principles, supporting rural communities with practical tools for land management, agricultural diversification and participatory decision-making. In a context where international resources are increasingly unstable, solutions grounded in local knowledge and sustainable development models represent an important complement to humanitarian aid.

An effective response to crises such as Madagascar’s therefore requires a combination of timely humanitarian action, long-term development programmes and investments in climate resilience. Within this framework, trees and agroforestry systems are not symbols, but functional components of adaptation and productive capacity strategies.

It is possible to contribute to this work by planting or gifting a tree that will become part of our projects in Madagascar: here.