L'observatoire : un instrument pour le suivi de la pauvreté

Poverty reduction is one of the major objectives of the current public policies. Monitoring poverty is twofold : (i) a static component aims at identifying and characterising the various forms of poverty, and (ii) a dynamic component aims, in a comprehensive way, at understanding their evolutions. The multidimensional aspect of poverty, and substitutions occurring among the various dimensions, make the search of the poverty determinants quite difficult. New investigation tools combining quantitative and qualitative approaches are then required to investigate poverty groups over large periods. For this objective, the “observatory” appears to be an appropriate monitoring tool: based on an independent structure collecting permanently information on specific population groups, it produces regular data on the situation and behaviour of these groups, for a set of users. One may distinguish among to types of “observatories”: the “synthetic observatory” gathering diverse information from various sources for a specific thematic objective, and the “field observatory” which, as in the Malagasy case, collects panel data on rural peculiar population. This efficient investigation tool needs, however, methodological input to improve its statistical represensativity and to be kept simple as information requirement is increasing with its functioning. (Full text in French)