Diversity of social protection forms in Madagascar A multi-scalar and multi-actor approach

Among the international recommendations, a new policy of social protection has been in progress of elaboration in Madagascar since 2015. In this country classified as being the less advanced, very exposed to the climatic and environmental risks, mostly rural and characterized by a high rate of informal employment, the challenges regarding social protection are numerous. Thereby, this article starting with the typification of the social protection system which prevails in Madagascar, puts into question its adaptation in the institutional context and its capacity to match the security needs related to the standards of living of the population. To reach this goal, this article is based on the institutionalist contemporary studies of social protection in the developing countries and suggests an original analysis, multi-scalar (national and local) and multi-actor (international and national, public and private, formal and informal). Supported by a diversified empirical material (gray literature, participative observation, qualitative interviews among the institutional actors and among the households), the study sets indeed that the sector of social protection in Madagascar remains characterized by a lack of integration, vertical as well as horizontal: vertical as we observe a strong disconnection between the forms of social protection thought at the national level and the mechanisms of social protection within reach by the malagasy population, largely dominated by the mechanisms of informal standard of living security ; horizontal as strong inequalities prevail from one place to another, the territory as being marked by micro- local forms of social protection. These elements lead to ask about the social sustainability of the malagasy social protection system.