École Nationale Supérieure de Statistique et d'Économie Appliquée

Hot water provision in West African households remains heavily dependent on polluting biomass and fossil fuels, exacerbating environmental degradation and health challenges. This study presents the first large-scale comparative analysis of water heating practices and the potential for solar water heater (SWH) adoption in two major cities with contrasting policy environments: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and Lomé, Togo. A comprehensive survey of 1011 households in Ouagadougou and 765 in Lomé was conducted via face-to-face interviews. Results reveal stark divergences driven primarily by policy. In Ouagadougou, substantial LPG subsidies and SWH promotion have led to LPG being the dominant energy source (70 % of households) and a relatively high SWH adoption rate (9 %). In contrast, Lomé’s lack of incentives results in heavy reliance on charcoal (62 %) and a very low SWH adoption rate (0.4 %), despite a high expressed willingness to adopt (84 %). Bivariate analysis reveals that willingness to adopt is strongly associated with higher education levels and the use of modern energy sources. While economic savings and convenience are the primary motivators, environmental concerns play a secondary, though significant, role when prompted. Despite high user satisfaction (80 %), technical failures—particularly float malfunctions affecting 30 % of systems—and high upfront costs remain critical barriers. The findings underscore that targeted policy interventions are the primary catalyst for shifting household energy practices. We conclude that promoting SWHs in West Africa requires financial mechanisms to overcome initial costs, stringent quality assurance to ensure reliability, and awareness campaigns that bundle economic, practical, and environmental benefits. • First large-scale survey (n > 1700) of urban water heating in two West Africa climates. • A 20-fold SWH adoption gap (9 % in Ouaga vs 0.4 % in Lomé) highlights policy’s role. • High satisfaction (80 %) among SWH users, despite technical failures and cost barriers. • Regional quality standards could help revitalize the local SWH manufacturing industry. • Sustainable policies boost SWH adoption (9 %) and LPG use (70 %) in Ouagadougou vs Lomé.

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the effect of financial information sharing on agricultural credit across 60 developing countries. We first develop a simple theoretical model that elucidates how enhanced information flow, via private credit bureaus and public credit registries, can mitigate information asymmetries and improve lending decisions in the farm credit market. The model predicts that when financial institutions have access to shared borrower information, they are more likely to increase credit provision to agricultural enterprises. To empirically validate these predictions, we employ panel data covering the period 2013–2020, sourced from the FAO, World Development Indicators, Worldwide Governance Indicators, and the World Bank's Doing Business database. Using the System Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) estimator to address potential endogeneity and dynamic effects, we find robust evidence that information sharing significantly enhances agricultural credit availability. This effect is particularly pronounced in the long term, suggesting that sustained improvements in information infrastructure yield cumulative benefits for agricultural finance. Our findings underscore the importance of policy frameworks that promote the development and integration of credit information systems. By facilitating transparency and reducing credit risk, such systems can strengthen the relationship between financial institutions and agricultural enterprises, ultimately supporting broader agricultural development goals.

Mobilisant les données de la Caisse nationale de sécurité sociale (CNSS) dans une perspective longitudinale, cet article s’efforce d’abord de répondre à des questions clés : l’émergence de l’économie marocaine repose-t-elle sur une dynamique du secteur formel susceptible de déjouer les risques d’attentisme et de blocage attachés à la figure de l’« économie de marché segmentée » dont relèverait ce pays du Maghreb ? Plus précisément, quelles places tiennent respectivement les entreprises nouvellement créées et celles déjà en place dans le développement et le renouvellement de l’emploi ? Les réponses à ces questions prennent en compte deux dimensions cruciales : la taille des entreprises et le genre de l’emploi. Ensuite, il s’agit de rendre compte des spécificités des dynamiques sectorielles afin de mettre à l’épreuve des approches avançant que les créations d’emplois sont concentrées dans des secteurs à faibles gains de productivité comme la construction et l’hôtellerie-restauration en raison d’une industrialisation entravée.

Land degradation is a real obstacle to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The objective of this article is to analyze the effect of land degradation on household poverty in Burkina Faso. To do this, the recursive bivariate probit model and the instrumental variable probit model (IV-probit) were used on data from the Harmonized Survey of Household Living Conditions to account for potential endogeneity between the explained and explanatory variables. The results indicate that land degradation influences the multidimensional poverty of rural households. Land degradation worsens the level of multidimensional poverty of rural households by 42.63% points. Based on these findings, there is a need for sustainable land management policies to reduce the effects of land degradation in rural areas in order to address challenges related to health, education and household living standards, thereby improving their level of non-monetary well-being.

The integration of renewable energy sources, particularly photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy, presents significant challenges due to their inherent variability and nonlinear dynamics. This chapter introduces a novel hybrid energy system that combines PV and wind power, managed by an advanced control strategy that integrates model predictive control (MPC) with particle swarm optimization (PSO). The MPC&PSO approach is designed to optimize power output and ensure the stability of the system under dynamic environmental conditions.

Maize is a key product entering the consumption basket of households in Burkina Faso and is one of the main crops cultivated in the country. Maize productivity is thus important for food security and household welfare but is constrained by financial issues that can be alleviated by digital finance. Using data from the 2018 Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) of Burkina Faso, we analyze the effects of digital finance uptake on maize productivity and spillover effects on farm households’ welfare. Our results indicate that the adoption of digital finance increases the agricultural productivity of maize producers, and in turn, has a beneficial effect on their welfare. These findings call to emphasize the alleviation of digital finance constraints and policies that aim to improve farmers’ productivity.

Abstract The latest National Determined Contributions in Côte d'Ivoire reveal that the waste sector is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the potential for composting and biogas to increase waste valorization, these sectors are underdeveloped and lack a legal framework. The aim of this paper is to analyze the economic benefits of a composting and biogas policy implementation in Côte d'Ivoire. Using a Computable General Equilibrium Model (CGE), the study takes into account the impact of these sectors on the economy and the effects of household and agricultural wastes, which are currently excluded from the national nomenclature. The results of the simulation showed positive impacts on green growth, employment, investment and demand, among others.

ABSTRACT In an environment where the question of women’s empowerment is a burning issue and where inequalities against women in education persist even though they are increasingly educated, it made sense to study the effect of educational inequalities between marital partners on women’s empowerment. Thus, using the latest rounds of the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) women’s file from the four major West African economies including Nigeria (2013), Côte d’Ivoire (2011–12), Ghana (2014) and Senegal (2017), and then using a combination of internal and external instruments to better address issues related to the endogeneity of variables, we show that strong gender disparities in education negatively influence women’s financial and non-financial empowerment. The former is seen as the power of women to make decisions about spending their own and their spouse’s income and major household purchases. The second is the woman’s power to decide on health-related expenses and visits to relatives. Several other socio-demographic variables were likely to influence women’s empowerment. These include the woman’s household social status, age, labour market participation and religion.