Southern Madagascar
Women’s Employment, Entrepreneurship & Leadership Center
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IRC Africa Inc. and TERATANY are preparing a women-centered employment, entrepreneurship, and leadership hub in Ambovombe, Southern Madagascar. Cyclone Valley will bring together two independent pathways designed for women with different starting points, educational backgrounds, and goals.
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The structure
The plans for the Center and both pathways are ready. The next step is to secure the resources and partners needed to move from planning to implementation.
Cyclone Valley is the umbrella name for our planned Women’s Employment, Entrepreneurship & Leadership Center in Southern Madagascar. It brings together two independent and equally important pathways for participants with different educational backgrounds, practical needs, and employment goals.
The name
The name was inspired by Silicon Valley, but it comes from a very different reality.
Cyclone Valley reflects our effort to connect innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship with the realities and priorities of women and communities in Southern Madagascar, a region facing prolonged drought, water and food insecurity, and destructive cyclones.
Cyclone Valley is the guiding identity and opportunity framework behind the Center and its two independent pathways.
Technology Meets Reality
We do not start with technology and ask how reality can adapt to it. We start with reality and ask: what can genuinely expand women’s choices?
Only then do we consider which tools, knowledge, and technologies can help.
This is the principle of Opportunity Before Technology at the heart of the Cyclone Valley Framework.
Inside Cyclone Valley
Both pathways are open to eligible participants from the wider community. Participation does not require a prior stay at Ny Trano Manga.
Women who previously stayed at Ny Trano Manga may receive priority for the Opportunity & Livelihood pathway when eligible, but there is no automatic transition from the shelter.
Pathway 1
Practical routes to income and economic independence
Designed primarily for women with limited formal education, including mothers who need practical opportunities that work within the realities of their lives.
The pathway will focus on vocational training, employment, micro-entrepreneurship, cooperatives, basic financial management, and the practical use of technology where it adds value.
Explore Opportunity & LivelihoodPathway 2
Skills for a rapidly changing world of work
Designed primarily for young women and adult women who have completed secondary school, including women with post-secondary education.
The pathway will focus on English, digital literacy, research and data collection, critical thinking, problem-solving, entrepreneurship, leadership, teamwork, and the informed use of advanced technologies.
The goal is not to train women for a single technology job, but to build their capacity to learn, adapt, and create opportunities in a rapidly changing world of work.
Explore Cyclone Valley Technology CampusThe relationship
The two pathways are not different levels of the same program. Opportunity & Livelihood is not a preparatory stage for the technology pathway. Both pathways are independent and equally important.
Cyclone Valley
Women’s Employment, Entrepreneurship & Leadership Center
Pathway 1
Opportunity & LivelihoodPathway 2
Cyclone Valley Technology CampusThe pathways remain independent, but they can strengthen one another through shared learning, locally grounded projects, and practical collaboration.
Framework PDF
Explore the vision, structure, guiding principles, and two-pathway model behind the planned Cyclone Valley Women’s Employment, Entrepreneurship & Leadership Center.
The purpose
Three outcomes that run across both pathways. They are not additional tracks.
Paid work with a local business, organization, institution, or other employer.
Independent work, a small business, or a cooperative built with other women.
Managing a business, leading a cooperative, creating jobs, or mentoring other women.
Across both pathways, participants may move from gaining an opportunity to creating opportunities for others.
How it will be run
The Center will be locally led by TERATANY, the women-led Malagasy organization working with IRC Africa Inc. on the ground in Southern Madagascar.
Knowledge of the community, culture, families, local economy, and the barriers women face belongs first and foremost to the people who live and work there.
IRC Africa Inc. will support resource development, international connections, professional and technology expertise, partnership development, financial oversight, and donor transparency.
International partnership should strengthen local leadership - not replace it.
Alignment
Cyclone Valley is aligned with SDGs 1, 4, 5, 8, 10, and 13.
Implementation priorities
Shared foundations first, then two pathway launches that do not depend on each other.
The two pathways can launch independently as resources become available.
By 2030, Cyclone Valley will be an established, operating center with experience gained from multiple completed cohorts across both pathways.
The next step
The Center is not yet operating. But it is no longer simply an idea.
The plans for the Center and both pathways are ready. The next step is implementation: securing the resources and partners needed to establish and equip the Center, prepare the local team, and launch the first cohorts.
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