Because of the lack of valuable data, African demography is still not very well known. For already several decades, INED has kept three population observatories in rural areas of Mali (region Bwa) and Senegal (Mlomp in the region of Ziguinchor and Bandafassi in the region of Kedougou). The installation of a fourth observatory in an urban area in Burkina Faso is under consideration.

Some of these observatories are part of the INDEPTH network (International Network of field sites with continuous Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their Health in developing countries) that has been federating about 30 observatories worldwide since 1998. The research programs are also conducted in collaboration with the local research institutes and universities. In Senegal, they are also conducted in collaboration with IRD, which has an observatory in Niakhar, south of Dakar, in order to coordinate the data-collecting methods and to conduct comparative studies between the three sites in Senegal.