Since 2014, the Malagasy Red Cross Society has been engaging with public authorities on the issue of legal preparedness for disasters. Through a project to strengthen the National Society's role as a first responder, IFRC Disaster Law supported the National Society to undertake a legal mapping of IDRL-related legislation as well as a specific case study on law and regulation for disaster risk reduction. The IDRL study was published in 2017, while the disaster risk reduction study was published in 2014.
The Malagasy Red Cross Society's continued engagement and advocacy resulted in the incorporation of its recommendations into a 2016 disaster risk management decree and paved the way for it to support the drafting of the national disaster risk reduction policy and a related decree. Additionally, drawing on the IDRL study recommendations, in 2017 the Malagasy Red Cross Society drafted a disaster risk management manual which was presented to the National Bureau of Disaster Risk Management.
As part of the ongoing mapping of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) frameworks and auxiliary role statuses of African national societies, IFRC Disaster Law completed an auxiliary role and DRM mapping in Madagascar in 2021. The purpose of the auxiliary role mapping exercise is to clearly articulate the auxiliary role of the National Society in the country by identifying, analysing, and consolidating the different roles and responsibilities given to the National Society through national legislation and policies as well as bilateral/multilateral agreements. The DRM mapping aims to identify and analyse the legal and policy arrangements for DRM across the country broadly. Collectively, these mappings aim to provide an analysis to support the National Society’s advocacy efforts with respect to reviews for both their constituting laws and other laws reflecting the auxiliary status of the national society; as well as a review of national DRM laws to include best practices.
In parallel of the workshop for lessons learned from the ARO AINA project of the Malagasy Red Cross Society (supporting COVID-19 vaccine coverage in remote areas), a session on the World Disaster Report 2022 of IFRC has been facilitated, putting an emphasis on the role of legislation in public health emergencies (Chap. 6) while highlighting the core values for implementing its recommendations: trust, equity, and local action.
From 17 to 19 October 2023 and with the support of ECHO PPP, the BNGRC, the Malagasy Red Cross Society and IFRC co-organised a workshop on Disaster Law in Antananarivo, providing a better understanding of Disaster Law's key thematic areas and their relevance in the local context to public authorities and key stakeholders of DRM in Madagascar.
Moreover, the event served as a platform to pull learnings from the 2022-2023 cyclone season to prepare for the upcoming season and beyond. The pinnacle of the event was the signing of a pre-disaster agreement between BNGRC, MRCS and IFRC, strengthening their cooperation in disaster preparedness and response, including during public health emergencies. This agreement is the continuation of MRCS's work with IFRC Disaster Law in improving legal preparedness and contributing to create an enabling environment for effective DRM in Madagascar.
