Vision 2030
IRC Africa’s vision through 2030 is to build on the work already underway in Southern Madagascar and develop a broader system of protection, economic independence, employment, technology, research, and local leadership.
In January 2025, IRC Africa Inc. and TERATANY, a registered local women-led NGO in Madagascar, established Ny Trano Manga (The Blue House), Madagascar’s first women’s shelter providing 24/7 accommodation and support.
We do not see our work as a single pathway in which a woman automatically moves from the shelter to employment and then to technology. Women have different backgrounds, needs, abilities, and starting points. That is why we are developing distinct pathways with one shared purpose:
To enable more women to live safely, become more independent, and have greater freedom to choose their own futures.
01 / What already exists
Ny Trano Manga (The Blue House) is Madagascar’s first women’s shelter providing 24/7 accommodation and support for women and adolescent girls affected by gender-based violence, rape, and forced child marriage, together with their children.
The shelter provides a safe place, food, medical care, guidance, and support at a time when immediate safety is the first priority.
Establishing Ny Trano Manga demonstrated that a real need can be identified and addressed through local leadership, even in a remote and resource-constrained region.
But our work in the field has also taught us that protection alone is not enough. Different women need different opportunities to build safer and more independent lives.
Proof before promise.
We will continue to build only what we can operate professionally, responsibly, and sustainably.
02 / Economic independence & opportunity
Cyclone Valley is the name of the overall Women’s Employment, Entrepreneurship & Leadership Center. It will include two independent and equally important pathways for participants with different educational backgrounds, needs, and starting points.
Both pathways will be open to the wider community. Previous use of Ny Trano Manga will not be required.
PLANNED - SEEKING FUNDING PARTNERS
By 2030, Cyclone Valley will be an established, operating center with experience gained from multiple completed cohorts across both pathways.
First-year operating targets
Pathway 1
Designed primarily for women with little or no formal education
The pathway will focus on practical skills, vocational training, entrepreneurship, cooperatives, financial management, and realistic opportunities for employment and income.
Opportunity & LivelihoodPathway 2
Designed primarily for young women and adult women who have completed high school, including women with post-secondary education
The Technology Campus will develop English-language skills, technology and AI-enabled capabilities, work with information and data, professional skills, and research methods.
Cyclone Valley Technology CampusThe two pathways are different, but they will not operate as separate worlds.
Women in the Opportunity & Livelihood pathway will bring life experience, local knowledge, and an understanding of families, communities, and local markets. Technology Campus participants will bring English-language skills, digital tools, and new ways of accessing and working with information.
The goal is genuine two-way learning. Campus participants may help with digital marketing, information management, customer relationships, and technology, while learning from practical local experience that cannot be acquired in a classroom or in front of a computer.
Local experience meets new technology.
Our work in Southern Madagascar has revealed not only the depth of the challenges, but also extraordinary human potential.
Again and again, we have met young women and men with a strong desire to learn English, access technology, develop professional skills, and find innovative, fairly paid work.
What we found in the field was not a lack of ambition, but a lack of access to opportunity.
The goal is not simply to teach people how to use a computer. It is to open access to knowledge, tools, and career pathways that are currently largely unavailable in Southern Madagascar.
Women will remain at the center of our programs. In activities outside the shelter, men will comprise no more than 20% of all participants.
03 / Building local research capacity
Ambovombe is located approximately 8 kilometers, or 5 miles, from the Indian Ocean and serves as a regional center for nearby coastal villages and communities.
EARLY STAGE - RESEARCH AND FEASIBILITY ASSESSMENT
This setting raises important questions about the connections between the climate crisis, the ocean, livelihoods, food security, and the lives of women and families.
Our goal is to establish and operate a Marine Research Center in Southern Madagascar by 2030. The Center will focus on research relevant to local realities while developing professional research capacity under local leadership.
The immediate next step is a professional feasibility assessment requiring $10,000 in funding. Its purpose is not to decide whether to establish the Center, but to define how to build it professionally and responsibly.
The assessment will help us:
Local communities and TERATANY will help define research priorities. They will not participate only as sources of information or data.
The Cyclone Valley Technology Campus will develop local capabilities in English, technology, AI-enabled tools, information management, data, and research methods. Once the Campus is operating, qualified graduates will be able to work alongside researchers and other professionals, participate in field research, and develop experience in data collection, analysis, and communication.
By 2030, the Marine Research Center will be an active, professionally operated institution with strong local roots, enabling people from Southern Madagascar to participate in creating knowledge about their own region.
04 / Local leadership & collaboration
Our work in Southern Madagascar is carried out in partnership with TERATANY and led by people who live in the region and understand its culture, language, communities, and local realities.
TERATANY, led by Founder and CEO Mamy Duata, directs day-to-day work on the ground. IRC Africa works alongside TERATANY on fundraising, strategic development, international relationships, access to relevant expertise, and accountability to donors.
Strengthen local leadership, not replace it.
We do not expect IRC Africa or TERATANY to do everything themselves. Our goal is to identify capabilities that already exist locally and gradually build a network of organizations, people, and complementary knowledge.
TINOÑE is a local NGO in the Androy Region working in climate-adapted agriculture, food security, and farmer training, with particular attention to women farmers. IRC Africa and TERATANY are exploring opportunities for future collaboration with the organization.
Do not rebuild what already exists. Identify, connect, and strengthen local capacity.
05 / Building capacity that can last
Donations are essential for building infrastructure, launching programs, and expanding our work. But our vision is not to create a local system that remains completely dependent on donations over the long term.
One of our goals is to help TERATANY gradually develop independent sources of income. A future possibility, dependent on the development of professional and research capacity, is to provide paid field and research services to researchers, organizations, and responsible external initiatives.
This could contribute to:
The goal is not to replace donations. It is to reduce dependence on them over time while building a stronger, more professional, and more financially resilient local organization.
Southern Madagascar is where we develop, test, and improve our models. Only approaches that demonstrate impact, stability, and local relevance should become a source of learning for other communities.
Our long-term aspiration is that proven knowledge and methods may one day be adapted for additional communities in Madagascar and, over time, potentially in other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
This is a long-term aspiration, not a current plan for operational expansion.
Build locally. Prove the model. Adapt it. Share what works.
Replication does not mean mechanical copying. Innovation Respecting Culture means adapting every model to local culture, needs, resources, and leadership.
06 / Our direction through 2030
Vision 2030 establishes clear goals while recognizing that each stage must be supported by the resources, teams, professional capacity, and partnerships required to operate it responsibly.
Current position and 2030 direction
Proof before promise does not mean limiting our ambition. It means building every stage with the professional capacity and local leadership required to make it last.
By 2030, we are working to build a Southern Madagascar where:
07 / A vision shaped on the ground
Vision 2030 was not written from a distance.
It has grown out of fieldwork, conversations with women and young people, our partnership with TERATANY, engagement with communities and local organizations, and continuous learning from the realities of Southern Madagascar.
Eldad Garfunkel, Founder and CEO of IRC Africa, has already accumulated more than 200 days of fieldwork in Southern Madagascar. And by 2030? It is easy to imagine that the number will be considerably higher.
But the number itself is not the point. What matters is sustained presence, trust, and the understanding that a responsible vision must grow from local realities rather than be imported from outside.
We are not trying to solve every problem in Madagascar. We have chosen to focus deeply on one region, build trust, and move forward step by step.
The goal is not only to respond to today’s needs. It is to build lasting change:
Protection. Opportunity. Local leadership. Local capacity.
Build on the ground. Learn from reality. Prove what works. Share the knowledge. Adapt it. Move forward responsibly.
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