Abstract: Poverty and vulnerability to poverty are two concepts measuring the same economic reality at different time horizons. While the first is measured ex-post, the second relates to an ex-ante measurement. We first attempt to identify the different approaches of poverty analysis. From the work of Ruggeri Laderchi et al. (2003) on the multidimensional approach to poverty, Carr (2008) traces an intermediate path between the absolutes of universalizing approaches and the tendencies to atomize basic approaches to the understanding of poverty / poverties. He thus assigns a role to local knowledge, external expertise and the practitioners development perspective to build the basic critical approach to development