Poverty and gender perspectives in marine spatial planning: lessons from Madagascar

This dataset was used for a report that provides an overview of three pilot cases of baseline data collection to better understand local communities’ dependence on marine resources and other livelihood activities, with emphasis on understanding the role of marine spatial zonation and resource manage-ment on poverty and gender equality. Pilot studies were conducted in Kenya, Tanzania and Madagascar. This dataset only contains data from Madagascar, in particular, from three coastal bays in the north western regions of Boeny and Sofia, namely Bombetoka, Mahajamba and Sahamalaza bays. The data collection was confined to these bays due to the fact that most of the population is concentrated here and the remainder of the coasts of these two regions is largely inaccessible. Bombetoka, Mahajamba and Sahamalaza Bays are characterised by highly diverse marine ecosys-tems and contain mangrove forests, coral reefs, and seagrass beds. The survey employed a mixed-method cross sectional study design, collecting qualitative and quantitative data at different levels. The study adopted a multi-stage sampling. A total of 489 households were interviewed face-to-face. Households were sampled from the Bay of Sahamalaza in the Sofia region and the Bay of Mahajamba and Bombetoka in the Boeny region. Household sampling effort per village was guided by information on village populations from census data in each country. At the village level, households were randomly selected with the help of village headmen and given unique serial identifiers. A survey questionnaire was developed. Quantitative data collection tools were digitized for electronic capture and transmission using Kobo Toolbox. The electronic questionnaire was uploaded to enumerators’ mobile smartphones using a unique Kobo Collect app. Data collected were submitted to a server daily. This dataset is part of a wider data collection that comprises three countries: Kenya, Tanzania, and Madagascar.