The Policy of Reducing Provincial Inequalities in New Caledonia

Abstract

In New Caledonia development policy aims at rebalancing the spatial-ethnic inequalities resulting from colonisation. Research findings show that two economical systems (domestic and market economies) coexist with differences in wage earning, resource inequalities and solidarity. In 1989 a development policy was introduced to “adjust” the inequalities that exist among the three Provinces (Loyalty Islands, North Province and South Province). The objective of the policy has been to create a social and political environment favourable for a stable economy that would especially benefit the indigenous population, the Kanak. Based on population censuses and a household budget survey, a 20-year assessment of this provincial policy is offered. The persistence of these inequalities, confirmed by the level of education and employment rate on the island, emphasises the partial failure of this policy. Thus particular attention is given to poor households, focused on strengthening social financial benefits. Their consumption structure is characterised by a hybrid system between the market economy and the non-market economy, which means that their social inclusion depends on both public and private solidarities. Making use of a hybrid economic system (subsistence and commercial) is one of the specific responses that the poor use to ensure their successful social integration.