2,000 households for a telephone survey about life standards

Better later than never, the INSTAT launches the phone survey. Selection of interviewees from the directory is off the point, the target sample is drawn as per usual. “There will be 2,000 mobile phones to be shared out. Surveys will be conducted from these mobiles and establish a pattern of the Malagasy people’s lifestyle” declared the statistics institute’s Director Paul Ravelomanantsoa .
The Instat saves time and money when choosing to conducted interviews from mobile phones. There are neither investigators sent on the field nor documents to be collected and monitored. Entry is centralized. Within each of the 2,000 households , there will be a correspondent who has to be aged at the least 18. He will be called every month for an interview. “the survey does not exceed 20 minutes per household per month, and is not deemed to replace the normal surveys usually conducted by INSTAT ,” added the institution’s boss.
This survey is funded by the World Bank through the PGDI . Topics mainly concern household management , healthcare, education, debt and employment. “Foreign donors as well as the central government need to know about the reality Madagascar, for only the clear knowledge of reality determines the policy and governance to be apply. ” explained the Director of  the PGDI program Serge Radert
The study focuses on he people’s daily life, its life standards and the problems faced by households on a daily basis. Financial backers actually noticed that their support does not always match the real problem faced by the population. The budget allocated by the World Bank to this end amounts to 230,000 dollars. Mobile phones and solar kits refills are considered as lost, and will not be recovered.
Being poor without being aware of it
The INSTAT’s national survey and the year 2012-2013’s monitoring MDG 2012-2013 highlighted the damages wrought by political transition in the country. Madagascar is nowhere near to achieve the year 2015’s Millennium Targets. Poverty rate has sharply increased up to 76.5%. During the better years of the Ravalomanana regime, the rate was as low as 68%, going down from a 80 % high peek in 2002, a year of political crisis. Still, here is the catch: 60 % of the poor are not aware of being poor at all!
Technically speaking, a person making a living with less than $ 2 a day is considered as poor. Madagascar is trailing far behind the Objective 1, namely the reduction of extreme poverty and hunger, and stands in no better position in relation with the Objective 5, namely the improvement of maternal health standards. The INSTAT’s leader believes that awareness on the reality of poverty to be paramount. According to Paul Gerard Ravelomanantsoa , could a person ignore or turn a blind eye on her own poverty, she will not find it necessary to improve her situation at all. He explains that reducing poverty in the country would require a plus 8% high economic growth and a fair distribution of wealth.