Begin with the decision the NGO must make
A baseline study in Madagascar becomes valuable when it changes an implementation decision. Before interviewing households in Antananarivo or Toamasina, a programme team should decide what it needs to learn about access, quality, affordability, knowledge or behaviour. A pair of urban sites can illuminate how an intervention might work in different settings; it cannot establish results for every district, rural settlement or hard-to-reach population.
An effective baseline begins with the programme theory of change. Map the intended activities, outputs, outcomes and assumptions, then ask which assumptions are most uncertain. For an education intervention, access to classes and learning outcomes are different constructs; for a livelihood project, training participation is not the same as improved earnings. Define the measurement questions before selecting a questionnaire platform. The final study plan should say who will review the data and what programme choices each indicator is expected to support.
Understand how research geography works in Madagascar
Fieldwork should follow the administrative vocabulary used in Madagascar: regions, districts and communes. These structures help researchers identify the correct boundaries, local gatekeepers and likely sources of population lists, but they do not automatically supply a complete probability sampling frame. First establish which boundaries apply to the actual programme area, then verify maps and household or facility counts. Administrative labels should be used only after checking their exact local meaning and relationship to the study population.
Define the target population and sampling frame
An apparently generous sample can still be biased if interviewers recruit only easy-to-reach people. Specify the universe, inclusion criteria, sampling units, contact procedures and treatment of refusals before fieldwork. Stratification can help protect key geographic or social groups when those groups are defined in advance. Consider whether monitoring requires a repeated cross-section or a panel; a panel creates stronger individual tracking but adds attrition and confidentiality duties. Report limitations as part of the methodological finding, not as an afterthought.
Baseline research in Antananarivo: designing the first city sample
In Antananarivo, where the city functions as a highland capital with a large service and trade economy, a baseline might start with an inventory of programme catchments and service points. If the intervention concerns basic education and youth learning, the field team should test measures of enrolment, attendance, learning conditions and household constraints. Interviewer routes should deliberately cover selected neighbourhoods rather than concentrating around accessible offices and major roads. Compare the register of intended participants with people who actually use services; discrepancies may expose targeting or access problems. Whether the unit is a household, young person, facility or beneficiary must remain consistent through analysis.
Baseline research in Toamasina: testing a contrasting city context
Toamasina deserves an independent field plan because it is a principal eastern port city. Before importing the Antananarivo questionnaire unchanged, conduct a short cognitive pilot and verify where the target population resides, travels and receives services. The sample allocation should reflect the stated comparison question, not an arbitrary equal split made for convenience. If the NGO needs a comparison between the two cities, agree the minimum precision and subgroup coverage needed. Findings should describe the observed difference without attributing it automatically to geography or programme performance.
Build indicators that can be measured again
Programme dashboards often group together activity counts, outputs and outcomes, but a baseline primarily needs interpretable starting values for the intended results. Define what counts as a person reached, a household with access, a user satisfied or a facility functioning. For sensitive measures, confirm privacy before selecting a mode. Set out missing-value rules and calculation conventions in advance. This protects the study from retrospective threshold-setting once the team has seen the data.
Choose appropriate survey and qualitative methods
A credible baseline rarely depends on a survey alone. Administrative records can describe programme reach, facility reviews can establish service readiness, and qualitative interviews can explain barriers not captured by fixed response options. The survey provides structured measures when the sampling design supports them. Decide which source is authoritative for each construct and how discrepancies will be investigated. A photograph, GPS point or timestamp should be collected only if needed and ethically justified; technology is not a substitute for valid measurement.
Translate and pilot instruments for local respondents
Tools and consent scripts should be tested in Malagasy and French. A language that works for a formal meeting may not be the clearest language for a household interview, and bilingual respondents may switch vocabulary when describing sensitive experiences. Prepare a glossary for core constructs, reconcile translations with the source questionnaire and role-play difficult questions. Recruit interviewers for language competence and cultural familiarity, not only device skills. Translation changes need recorded approval so that future midline and endline rounds can preserve conceptual equivalence.
Design field operations around actual access conditions
Operationally, highland/coastal differences and rainy-season roads matter for execution. Plan interviewer assignments, transport, safe operating hours, supervision and escalation around this reality. An initial reconnaissance visit can check listing feasibility, accessibility, the actual duration of an interview and any mismatch between administrative maps and lived settlement boundaries. A rigorous pilot should include sample-selection rehearsal, consent practice, skip-logic tests and mock data submission. Budget for replacements that comply with the original selection procedure rather than allowing opportunistic substitution when a respondent is absent.
Protect consent, privacy and vulnerable participants
Ethics is an operational design requirement. Explain that participation does not guarantee benefits or change programme eligibility. Avoid collecting precise location, images or contact details simply because a platform allows it. Where safeguarding topics or vulnerable populations are involved, establish a clear response protocol and train interviewers not to promise confidentiality they cannot protect. Consent wording should be understandable in the language used for the actual conversation. Institutional and local permissions must be checked for the relevant sites and activities.
Check quality while fieldwork is still active
A strong fieldwork control room watches more than the number of completes. It tracks sample progress, refusals, subgroup balance, interview duration, interviewer-level anomalies and unresolved incidents. Supervisors should review records daily while corrective action is possible. Back-check a defined selection of interviews, protect respondent confidentiality and investigate rather than automatically punish statistical outliers. Keep a log of tool changes, retraining and replacements so the final analysis can explain exactly what happened in the field.
Analyse change without overstating causal claims
Before writing the narrative, reconcile sample outcomes, missing data and indicator calculations. Tables should distinguish raw counts, valid percentages and weighted estimates as appropriate. Discuss plausible contextual explanations without attributing causes that were not tested. A useful final discussion links each finding to an operational question, such as targeting, access, implementation capacity or future monitoring. Archive the questionnaire, codebook, cleaning syntax and sampling notes so the next round can reproduce the approach.
Turn baseline evidence into action in Madagascar
For a hypothetical NGO programme focused on basic education and youth learning, the useful deliverable is not simply a table showing enrolment, attendance, learning conditions and household constraints. It is an explanation of which barriers can be addressed through the intervention and which reflect factors outside programme control. If participants know a service exists but rarely use it, explore cost, location, opening time, quality, trust and social norms. Recommend a response only when the evidence distinguishes among those explanations. The baseline should also register external shocks and programme exposure dates to protect later interpretation.
At the end of the exercise, the NGO should be able to say what the baseline means for Madagascar, what it means specifically for Antananarivo and Toamasina, and what it does not mean. Set a schedule for repeating core indicators, preferably at comparable seasonal periods. Keep the sample frame, contact protocol, questionnaire versions, interview-date records and calculation syntax. Use a short management session to decide whether targeting, staffing, communication or referral practices should change. Record those decisions so the endline can examine both outcomes and the adaptation process.
What a useful baseline report should deliver
A strong Madagascar baseline report should provide a clearly defined study population, an honest sampling account, accepted-interview totals, response outcomes, reproducible indicators and accessible recommendations. City comparisons should carry their own denominators and limitations. The report can be supported by a clean dataset, fieldwork memo, codebook and monitoring matrix, for internal analysis and subsequent measurement rounds. Any gaps in coverage should be visible so implementers can decide whether further listing or targeted qualitative inquiry is needed before expanding activities.
How Surveysphere Africa can support
Surveysphere Africa helps NGOs and development organisations design baseline studies, define indicators, plan samples, manage fieldwork, verify data quality and turn findings into actionable programme decisions. For work involving Antananarivo, Toamasina or wider coverage in Madagascar, the research design should begin with the intended decision and the population it needs to represent, then adapt responsibly to the local context.
Related guidance
For the continent-wide view, read our guide to baseline, midline and endline studies.
Our services for research in Madagascar
We run research across African markets. Start with these services for work in Madagascar:
- Monitoring, evaluation and learning in Madagascar: Baseline, midline, endline and programme evaluation.
- Social and development research in Madagascar: Qualitative and quantitative studies for social and development programmes.
We also offer: Outsourced fieldwork, Market and consumer research, Public health research, Policy, economic and institutional research, Data analytics and insights visualisation.
