Urbanisation, malnutrition des enfants et genre au Burkina Faso : une approche économétrique spatiale

In Burkina Faso, the analysis of the impact of the regional urbanization in terms of child malnutrition of less than 5 years, based on a spatial econometrics approach according tothe administrative division of the 30 provinces, using the demographic and health surveys of 1992-93 and 1998-99, arrives at three conclusions. Firstly, the urbanization is accompanied, on the one hand, of a reduction of the levels of wasting, underweight and stunting – a doubling of the rate of regional urbanization generates a reduction from 5,2 to 5,8 percent of the rate of child malnutrition of less than 5 years –, and,on the other hand, of a rise in the inequality of child malnutrition, expressed by the relationsweight for age and height for age – a doubling of the rate of regional urbanization implies a rise of about 30 percent in the inequality indicators of child malnutrition, except wasting. In addition, if the level of stunting increased between 1992-93 and 1998-99, the econometric estimates do not confirm the aggravation of the inequality of child malnutrition during the sameperiod, as opposed to what seem to suggest the descriptive statistics. Secondly, the econometric analysis with spatial regimes shows that there is no significant difference in terms of gender in the relation between, on the one hand, the level or the inequality of stunting or wasting and, on the other hand, the rate of provincial urbanization.Moreover, only the level of stunting of the girls significantly increased between 1992-93 and 1998-99, contrary to the inequality. Thirdly, these results, as well as others recentlyhighlighted – urbanization of monetary poverty and increase in the inequality of the childmortality – challenge necessarily the authorities, even if in 2030, only a third of theburkinabè population is likely to reside in urban Groupes. The possibility of such a dynamics –including in the others developing countries –, inherent to structural changes and to movementsof population which accompany it, reduces the chances of a more equaliterian development, exceptif efforts are made to implement ingenious economic and social policies. (Full text in French)