Using the Human Centered Design approach

ALTERNATIVES was created in 2020 during the period of COVID-19 by committed young people who were convinced of the importance of supporting their peers, especially underserved and vulnerable young people in remote towns and villages. ALTERNATIVES uses the "Human Centered Design" (HCD) approach or commonly referred to as "user-centered design." This approach consists of creating a framework that integrates a set of practices to understand the users, their needs, their constraints, and their behaviours in order to develop a deep empathy, generate several ideas to help solve the problems of a community and shifting paradigm.

ALTERNATIVES’ vision and areas of intervention

Young people are responsible and autonomous. They actively contribute to sustainable development, and to the promotion of innovative entrepreneurship, sensitive to gender and equity, and concerned about the protection of the planet.

ALTERNATIVES intervenes in capacity strengthening and service provision for a better access to quality health care, understanding of rights and access to decent job for marginalized populations (in particular, youth from disadvantaged communities, young women sex workers and victims of sexual exploitation, youth in prison, inmates or at risk)

Leading change

We always say that youth is the lever for development, they represent a demographic dividend that provides a vast human capital for the labor market and leads to an investment potential that can stimulate the economic and social growth of the country. According to INSTAT in the Final Results of the RGPH-3 2018, the third General Census of Population and Housing, the rate of population growth is sustained with a population that is characterized by youth, Madagascar would see its population double in 23 years, with a median age of 18 years. Unfortunately, due to their lack of participation in every sphere of life, young people lose their self-esteem and feel disoriented. By investing in the capacity building of young people, we know that they can craft solutions to lift Madagascar out of poverty, by impacting the political, economic and social life of the country.

Under the LEADING CHANGE program, ALTERNATIVES has particularly considered the marginalized youth, including orphans and those from low-income communities who have had difficulties in accessing quality leadership programs that enable them to reach their full potential.

The 22 beneficiaries of the project are young marginalized people between 18 to 24 years old coming from disadvantaged families and having obtained their baccalaureate, in particular young people from "AKAMASOA" and "AKANY ZANDARMARIA " centers.

The program aims at strengthening the leadership and personal development skills of marginalized youths, supporting their creation of viable income-generating activities and developing the communication around their project ideas.