1In the 1990s, economists looked into the bottlenecks inhibiting the Malagasy economy. Madagascar is the only country at peace which has been getting poorer without interruption since its independence. To document the link between economic and political cycles, investigations are carried out into everyday socio-political governance. This issue is addressed in the form of statistical survey modules conducted in conjunction with the National Institute of Statistics of Madagascar. The goal is to gain an understanding of the population’s perception and experience of corruption, discrimination and insecurity, while assessing the level of confidence in institutions.

Anti-corruption poster, Niger.

2This was a first as, until then, corruption or governance indicators were essentially calculated by international organisations such as the World Bank or Transparency International, based on expert opinions often far removed from the reality experienced by ordinary citizens. With this ground-breaking work, IRD notably provides an alternative indicator to measure the level of bureaucratic corruption suffered by the population on a daily basis, using a system of ad hoc surveys. This system is based on a series of questions which relate to the entire population.

3The publication of the level of corruption monitored by this indicator forced the authorities to recognise the magnitude of the phenomenon (one third of the population affected), put measures in place and set up anti-corruption institutions. Since this initial experience in Madagascar in 1995, the methodology has been tested in many other countries. In 2013, it served as a basis for the harmonised system designed to measure and monitor governance, peace and security (GPS) indicators, adopted by the African Union and validated by all the national statistical institutes (NSI) of African countries. This approach has also been adopted by the NSIs of Global North countries (Italy, France).