As a signatory to the Scaling Up Nutrition movement, the Government of Madagascar is working to scale up specific high-impact interventions to accelerate the reduction of chronic malnutrition. The Government of Madagascar aims to accomplish this goal through its National Nutrition Policy and the National Action Plan for Nutrition, which focus on areas such as promotion of appropriate infant and young child feeding; community-based nutrition activities, including growth monitoring and promotion; and integration of nutrition into primary health care, including family planning. The USAID Mission in Madagascar focuses on improving maternal, child, and infant health as well as family planning and reproductive health services; an important part of USAID/Madagascar’s strategy is to train and engage health workers to promote the management of health services at the community level.

FANTA’s activities in Madagascar have included:

• Assessing growth monitoring and promotion activities in USAID/Madagascar programs and identifying specific steps to strengthen implementation, especially at the community level 
• Conducting a study to inform USAID/Madagascar programs on how to better promote exclusive breastfeeding for infants under 6 months and the use of the lactation amenorrhea method of family planning among lactating mothers