July 2023 — Situated in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar is an island country annually affected by 1.5 cyclones, the highest frequency in Africa. Freddy is one of the worst cyclones that hit the country and crossed over to other countries in Africa, claiming 676 lives in Malawi, 198 in Mozambique, 17 in Madagascar 2 in Zimbabwe and 1 in Mauritius.  

The recurrent cyclones and other disasters make it imperative for Madagascar to learn by doing and do by learning and come up with relevant strategies addressing community expectations. Social and Behaviour Change forms a crucial part of preparedness and response interventions in emergencies. In this regard, UNICEF Madagascar documented steps undertaken by the Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) network and partners in Madagascar as a contribution towards preparation and response initiatives to cyclone Freddy. Key observations and lessons learnt are also discussed to inform future programming in the country and other cyclone-affected regions. 

This Paper bases its conceptual framework around the emergency prevention, preparedness, response and recovery (PPRR), the Emergency Risk Management (ERM) framework as well as the UNICEF framework on Accountability to Affected Population (AAP) to define the interventions based on three major phases of the intervention i.e., before, during and after.

An SMS-based survey was used as a feedback mechanism and as a tool to assess SBC interventions 3 days after the passage of Cyclone Freddy. The survey used a structured questionnaire where 450 respondents participated from 13 regions of the country. Scouts (youth mobilisers) and other NGO partners in the emergency network conducted phone calls, entered data into a Kobo-Collect template and analysed the data using simple percentiles in Excel sheets. 

Analysis of the processes and results of the survey indicated that there was adequate utilisation of systematic steps in emergency preparedness. These included strategic planning and prepositioning of communication materials in all 23 regions of the country, coordination and partnership at national, regional and district levels, implementation of a mixture of communication and engagement methods and efforts to collect and respond to feedback. Three days from the onset of Freddy, the affected people were highly exposed to life-saving messages (86%) but needed more exposure to life-improving messages i.e., health (29.6%), child stimulation (29.3%), WASH (29.3%), nutrition (18%), Gender-based Violence (10.2%) and Violence against Children (4%).  SBC interventions showed positive results in the use of bed nets to prevent malaria (85.7%), handwashing with soap to prevent diarrheal diseases and COVID-19 (95.6%) and reporting of cases of gender-based violence and violence against children (31.6%). 50.9% of the interviewed individuals acknowledged having been well-informed about humanitarian interventions.

Future interventions need to consider enhancing a mix of communication and engagement methods, with a bias toward interpersonal communication and more emphasis on sustaining and reinforcing positive behaviours in health, WASH, education, nutrition, child protection and gender. In addition, humanitarian partners need to close feedback loops to ensure that they provide timely response to concerns and close the loop by communicating how the community feedback is being used. There is a need for more community participation and dialogue between communities and duty-bearers (government and partners) to increase transparency, trust and satisfaction.