Alternative jobs for youth

Women learning how to sew, in the community center in Fizono
Women learning how to sew, in the community center in Fizono / Photo: Davidson Andrianasolo

Alternative jobs for youth

  • Our Objective

    Co-creating practical, land-independent livelihood pathways with young people and youth-headed households in the Masoala buffer zone—reducing pressure on natural resources while building more resilient local economies.

  • Figures

    The project was launched on January 1, 2026 and is currently in progress.

Summary

Around Madagascar's Masoala buffer zone, young people and youth-headed households face a pressing challenge: limited access to farmland leaves them with few options to build stable livelihoods. This affects their economic security and increases pressure on the surrounding natural environment.

The project works directly with these communities to design and test practical alternatives—from off-farm employment and rural entrepreneurship to skills training and new income-generating activities. By co-creating solutions with young people rather than designing them from the outside, the project aims to ensure that outcomes are grounded in local realities and built to last.

The goal is a set of livelihood approaches that expand opportunity for land-limited households, ease resource pressure, and can be adapted and replicated across similar contexts in the region.

Project Connections

  • Part of the topic

    Systems transformation

    Systems transformation
  • Part of the solutionscape

    Building environmental justice in a remote global biodiversity hotspot

Team

  • Project contact

    Dr. Ntsiva Andriatsitohaina
    Associated Senior Researcher

    Portrait of Ntsiva
    Project contact
  • Melarcia Batty
    Project Officer–melarcia.batty@fullcircle-initiative.org

  • Maëlle Andriambalohary
    Project Officer–maelle.andriambalohary@fullcircle-initiative.org

  • Vahy Nekena Ifaharana
    Project Officer–vahy.nekena@fullcircle-initiative.org