Contenu du sommaire : Microfinance : petites sommes, grands effets ?

Microfinance : petites sommes, grands effets ?

• Introduction. - Dominique Gentil
• Entre "localisme" et mondialisation : la microfinance comme révélateur et comme levier de changements socio-économiques. - Dominique Gentil
  Between « localism » and globalisation : Micro-finance as evidence and as a leverage of socioeconomic changes. Micro-finance must not only be analysed as a local phenomenon. It also fits in the framework of globalisation, is presented as a planetary movement, integrates within neo-liberal myths and is mobilised in anti-poverty campaigns. It may also be considered as revealing of economic opportunities, of social differentiations of economic, social and cultural imbrications, of the new links between town and country. Finally it is an important leverage of change, contributing to local development ; diffusing hybrid norms and advocating public policies defined by different actors concerned and not exclusively by the State.
• Crédit rural et politiques publiques dans le sertao brésilien. - Ricardo Abramovay
  Rural loans and public policies in the Brazilian Sertâo. The policy of reinforcing family agriculture has changed the relationship of the Brazilian State to its rural milieu. 750 000 families have benefited from credit, while half of them had never had any access to finances before. The use of bank intermediation however constitutes a bottleneck that threatens the integrity of the policy itself. Banks are very selective, they tend to avoid the most poor of the rural population or limit their access to credit only. Local financing constitutes a means stimulating the economic initiatives of rural inhabitants, in particular in the Sertâo-semi-arid region of the Northwest.
• Microfinance et dynamiques économiques : quels effets après dix ans d'innovations financières ? - François Doligez
  Micro-finance and economic dynamics : What effects after ten years of financial innovations ? This article examines some questions related to the impact of micro-finance on the « real sphere » : who has access to credit ? Does it improve revenues and investments and therefore the local economy or, on the contrary, does it induce negative effects on the consumption and the living levels of the borrowers ? The article is based on fieldwork concerning three rural micro-credit networks in Benin, in Guinea and in Nicaragua. The comparative analysis of more than 3 000 surveys brings to light the ambivalent development of access to credits and illustrates, beyond standardised methods that are frequently used, the importance of socioeconomic effects.
• Les pratiques financières des femmes entrepreneurs. Exemples sénégalais. - Isabelle Guérin
  The financial practices of women entrepreneurs : Senegalese examples. African entrepreneurs in general, and women in particular, are confronted with two types of demands with distinctive temporalities : daily survival and the respect of long-term community obligations. Such a duality obliges them to reconsider management criteria : accordingly the amount of securities and debts becomes determinant. This article brings to light two principal results from the analysis of statistical and social data on the entrepreneurial activities of Senegalese women. The first concerns the magnitude and dynamics of financial activities : if women are able to stabilise their activities, it is due to their invention of new and collective forms of financial practices. The second bears on the diverse experiences that must be linked to the ambivalence in regard to debt.
• Le secteur endogène va-t-il disparaître ? Tontine, "usuriers" et Crédit rural de Guinée. - Agnès Lambert, Kefing Condé
  Will the indigenous sector disappear ? Rotative savings, loan sharks and rural credit in Guinea. Contrary to the expected effects of liberalisation policies, financial markets are segmented between commercial banks, micro-finance and the indigenous sector. The analysis of practices, through the study of financial market structuring in Guniea Conakry, demonstrates a complex reality. The same agents, producers, traders or functionaries ultimately turn either to the micro-financial sector (the rural credit scheme) either to the rotative savings or to usurers for solutions to their multiple problems. All the while, the two sectors continue to feed and transform each other : the intermediary sector frees the borrower of the usurer while allowing him to nourish the indigenous sector.
• La gouvernance en microfinance : grille d'analyse et perspectives de recherche. - Cécile Lapenu
  Governance in micro-finance : Analytical scheme and research perspectives. Today's micro-finance has to perpetuate its activity, notably by means of efficient governance. Bypassing a vision limited to the sole technical aspects and to the relationships between administrators and managers, the cerise committee bases itself on four case studies to propose an analysis of power relationships of the conditions of power-exercise and of the management of its dysfunctions, so as to determine how a micro-financial institution could forestall and overcome moments of crisis. The analysis demonstrates the necessity of an organisational basis that would be common to all forms of governance, and which efficiency would vary according to diverse factors.

• Le point sur...

  • Les sommets mondiaux du microcrédit : où en est-on après ? - Isabelle Guérin

• Notes de lecture sur la microfinance