Development of production, certification and marketing of medicinal and cosmetic plants Madagascar

Context of the service

Jardins du Monde is a French NGO whose main objective is to promote the use of medicinal plants in community health, where people have difficulty accessing conventional medicine. Present in Madagascar (Province of Antsiranana) since 2003, its local office is managed by an expatriate national coordinator and a team of six local employees.
In 2015, Jardins du Monde decided to develop a new activity of production of certified organic and fair trade plants for the cosmetics sector. These plants are produced by four village associations of producers in villages in northern Madagascar and allow them to contribute to the socio-economic development of communities.
It is in this context that the expert was recruited to provide one-year technical assistance for the development of these income-generating activities.

Services provided

Head of the production division of Jardins du Monde in Madagascar, the expert was in charge of different tasks:
- Development of volumes and quality of medicinal plants and cosmetics certified organic and fair trade,
- Support and advice to producer associations: capacity building, organization, advice and agronomic monitoring, implementation and monitoring of standardized protocols at the different stages of production,
- Preparation and passage of organic and fair trade certification audits (ECOCERT), continuous monitoring of compliance with certification standards
- Management of logistics from field to boat: production, payments, storage, export, etc.,
- Compliance of export activities with the recommendations of the Nagoya Protocol,
- Monitoring and technical support to village communities for the use of Fair Trade funds for the implementation of infrastructure and rural development projects,
- Communication: website, social networks, photos, videos.

Summary of the service

Development of the production, certification and marketing of certified organic and fair trade medicinal and cosmetic plants in Northern Madagascar: Capacity building and organization of producer groups; Agronomic advice and monitoring; Implementation and monitoring of organic and fair trade certifications (ECOCERT); Customer relations in the cosmetics industry; Management of production, stocks, export and invoicing; Compliance with the recommendations of the Nagoya Protocol.