Human Security Project For The Prevention Of Violence And Vulnerability Reduction For The Most Vulnerable Inhabitants Of Antananarivo, Madagascar

Problem definition/analysis and justification The multi-sectoral dimension of human security will be taken into account: while protecting the most vulnerable from violence and from the aftermath of natural disasters, and empowering them to adopt coping mechanisms, income generating activities and training opportunities will be provided. In line with multiple funding criteria of the United Nations Trust Funds for Human Security (UNTFI-IS), the proposed people-centered inter-agency intervention merits soppo11 from the UNTFHS for the following reasons: 1. An integrated community-based intervention will be deployed in twenty-five disadvantaged neighborhoods of Antananarivo to address underlying causes of and threats to personal, economic. environmental, and health security, with an impact on community and political securities. 2. To this end, an empowerment protection framework will build resilience of Communities inhabitants, reduce risks and vulnerabilities, protect and contribute to an enabling Environment, as follows: - Empowering communities and vulnerable groups through community mobilization and local institutional strengthening and through resilience-building of specific vulnerable groups (i.e. children. Women, Youth, economic migrants and host communities) - Promoting community, legal, and institutional mechanisms for protection reducing exposure to Threats/risks for vulnerable groups to respond to violence - Enabling socio-economic, institutional and physical environment through community-based basic service-provision; livelihoods generation: institutional strengthening (i.e. urban development plans) 3. Community-led strategies will be deployed to ensure direct involvement and participation of people (involving directly at least 25,000 people and benefiting at least 150,000 people  which constitute 25% of tile poorest population). For this to be done, the intervention will promote the ownership through Local committees for Vulnerability Reduction and Human Security, to be formalized within the Fokontany (the closest institution to the community). These committees will elaborate neighborhood strategies to coordinate lead the activities at the neighborhood level. 4. The intervention will generate immediate direct tangible benefits for the most vulnerable communities, i.e. reduction of violence prevalence/risks; improvement of socio-economic conditions through generation of incomes, promoting sustainable livelihoods and small business plans; reduction of health threats as consequence of improved sanitation, drainage and waste-management; upgrading of physical living conditions; better and more effective protection of children, women and youth. Capacities of the communities will be reinforced through the capacity-building of their representatives and institutions. 5. While providing immediate measurable tangible benefits, the intervention will also aim at setting the basis for long-term sustainable consolidation of human security in the city, through the institutionalization of its practices and sustainable community-empowerment. The intervention is expected to contribute positively to the stabilization of the crisis situation in Antananarivo, 6. The intervention will generate a better understanding of structural and crisis-related vulnerabilities in order to build a more resilient city. The capacity at city and local level to identify vulnerabilities and their trends to provide timely forecast will be improved in order to understand the causes of crisis (both natural and human-made) and better prevent them. 7. Finally, the intervention will benefit from the presence of OCHA in two ways: - OCHA will play a crucial role in assisting other agencies in conducting a simulation. The budget allocated to OCHA will cover the expenditure for the set-up of this exercise. - OCHA will facilitate the coordination for preparedness and response in relation to humanitarian activities; if there is a need for inter-cluster coordination to respond to a humanitarian crisis, OCHA will take the lead. No fund is requested to carry out this function. Although a variety of efforts have been deployed to address vulnerabilities of the population on a sectoral basis, a systemic and integrated framework, which tackles the system of threats that cause vulnerability, has not been adopted for the city of Antananarivo. Furthermore, an approach that promotes the proactive role of the communities to ensure that technical assistance is delivered through sustainable community-empowerment is lacking. Failing to provide such intervention will result in structural and progressive vulnerabilities and more suffering for a majority of Antananarivo's inhabitants. An inter-agency systemic intervention is therefore proposed, which tackles the interplay of threats to crucial dimensions of Human Security of Antananarivo's most disadvantaged inhabitants. There is need to seize the opportunity offered by current stability at the local level to contribute in preparing the foundations and solid ground for sustainable peace, thus to prevent further Human Security deterioration. The multi-sectoral dimension of human security will be taken into account: while protecting the most vulnerable from violence and from the aftermath of natural disasters, and empowering them to adopt coping mechanisms, income generating activities and training opportunities will be provided.