Madagascar often suffers from the effects of natural disasters. In 2021, the country suffered its worst drought in 40 years. During 2022, the nutritional and health situation continued to deteriorate throughout Madagascar, especially in the Greater South region. And in 2023 it was hit by Cyclone Freddy, the most durable and most intense tropical cyclone recorded in the world.
All this, coupled with inflation caused by the global economic crisis, unleashed catastrophic levels of food and nutrition insecurity unprecedented in the south of the island. By the end of 2022, more than 2 million people were in phase 3 (crisis) or 4 (emergency) of the food insecurity classification and, in July, 355,000 children under five were suffering from acute undernutrition.