Le journal de l'IRD
n° 50 June-July-August 2009
Translator: Nicholas Flay
Abstracts for the international issue
SAS: Is microcredit the panacea in the
fight against poverty?
Isabelle Guerin: It is an illusion to imagine that it is enough just to give a little
money to a poor person to make him into
an entrepreneur.
It is much more complicated than that!
Economic initiative requires technical
skills, the ability to negotiate, integration
in a network, and especially the will to
take risks.
These qualities rarely combine at individual level, particularly among the poor,
SAS : How can the dysfunctions of this
sector be countered?
p. 5 Partners
p. 12 Worlds
My feeling is that research for
development should be better integrated in the overall set of measures
for development aid contributed by
Europe.
The budget devoted to this is substantial at European scale, but in my
view it is not sufficiently linked in to
research. I think that for the countries of the South Europe must be a
model of development cooperation.
That position can be reached by
better consistency within the
European Union and also at
Commission level, notably between
the expenditure made for the developing countries and funding for
research in these countries. In the
Research Framework Programme,
there are of course some one-off
projects but that is not enough to
ensure the continuity of action that
is so essential.
IRD-Cnes
A new plasmodium
agreement signed
T
he IRD Director-general and the Chairman of the
France’s space agency Centre National d’Etudes
Spatiales (Cnes) have just signed the agreement
Espace et Développement des pays du Sud (“Space
and Development of the countries of the South”). The
intention is to set the existing long-term cooperation between the two organizations, materialized as common actions and ventures, into a formal framework with shared scientific strategy, organization of synergy of objectives and operations of the two organizations and mutualization of their competences in their respective fields of excellence. Through this agreement
they are strengthening their shared conviction that space technology and methods play and
will continue to play an essential role in the countries of the South for monitoring climate and
environment and for natural resources management and that access to these methods, technologies and data is a key element for international solidarity for development.
Gabon: new boost for CIRMF medical research centre
Open up, update,
achieve excellence” are the three priorities declared by the new
director of the Centre international de recherches médicales de
Franceville (Cirmf, Gabon), Jean-Paul Gonzalez (IRD). Renovation
of the Centre set up in 1979 by President Omar Bongo therefore involves exchange of researchers with other research organizations of the Region, upgrading of premises and equipment
to meet current standards, establishment of good laboratory
practices, initiation of a researcher recruitment programme and
hosting Gabonese PhD students. Also part of the scheme are
agreements that will be signed with a number of universities
and institutions around the world.
“
p. 11 Valorization
Fungi, an unexpected resource
F
© Cirmf
ungi can help improve agricultural yields in the countries of the
South.
IRD scientists are exploring possible related uses for developing ecologically-based processes accessible to farmers.
©
A Franco-Gabonese research team has
isolated a new species of Plasmodium
(Plasmodium gaboni) from chimpanzees.
It is closely related to the most virulent
pathogen responsible for malaria in
humans.
p. 1 News
p. 2 News
p. 4 Partners
p. 12 Worlds
Unsuspected treasures of
Andean salars
Ebola:
from bats to humans
The great feats of
the great
frigatebird
Local rural areas, development and
biodiversity in the South
I
ould local rural areas and their products represent the economic and ecological future in the countries of the South?
The question is relevant, judging by the proliferation of initiatives to promote and valorize local products in the South. The
international symposium “Localizing products” held in Paris
reviewed scientific work in this domain, which has recently
become the focus of research effort, at least in the context of
the countries of the South.
p. 8 e 9 Research
p. 7 Research
at the heart
of Franco-Brazilian
research
Species conservation and economic stakes
IRD
he IRD has now been present in Brazil
for 45 years and conducts multidisciplinary research there with its local partners. To mark the special “France in
Brazil” year this issue features some of
the themes covered in this work, including climate variability, biodiversity and
migration areas.
T
© IRD/E. Leroy
C
© CNRS/H. Weimerskirch
© IRD/D. Wirrmann
T
he salars are salt flats, deserts forming immense mirrors that display the
reflections of snow-capped volcanic
cones. Lunar-like landscapes, the only
signs of vegetation are the giant cacti that
colonize their edges. Yet the salt crust
conceals a wealth of resources. Salar de
Uyuni in Bolivia, the world’s largest salt
desert, for example, holds substantial
reserves of lithium, the metal necessary
for making batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles.
All that represents much-coveted treasure, a boon for Bolivians. Hundreds of
other salars scattered over Bolivia, Chile
and Argentina also bear considerable
resources for the Andean populations.
French and Chilean scientists have studied
a series of 80 such salt lakes along about
1.000 km of cordillera in Bolivia and
northern Chile, to determine their chemical composition and assess the quality of
their waters.
t took a multidisciplinary study to
detect the structure
of ocean eddies in
the Mozambique Channel ?
which the great frigatebird can
do without the calculations.
O
© IRD/L. Maurice-Bourgoin
n 2007, an Ebola epidemic struck the
Democratic Republic of Congo, killing
around 200 people in the province of
Western Kasaï.
This outbreak was something of a mystery,
for good reason. The conditions logically
were not ripe for an outbreak of haemorrhagic fever in that region, where there are
no gorillas or chimpanzees, the other victims of the virus who generally transmit it
to humans. Moreover, no unusual deaths
of domestic animals had been reported. A
highly detailed survey brought out evidence of a strong spatio-temporal correlation between this epidemic and the current
migration paths of bats. These results will
provide ways of developing detailed preventive measures along the bats’ migration
route.
I
© Cirmf
How can the partnership between Europe and the developing countries be improved
today?
rnamental fish are
often neglected as
research models owing to
their recreational usage, but
in some countries they are
as vital for economic development and biodiversity valorization or conservation as
fish destined as food.
This
sector
generates
48.000 production farms in
Indonesia, 10 000 jobs in
Peru, substantial income for
rural communities and a
significant foreign-currency
source from the export
market.
However, this activity has a significant impact on the environment, because 20 % of
freshwater fish sold for ornamental purposes are taken directly from wild populations.
Research under way has the objective of reducing the damage induced by catching these
fish and of developing domestication and conservation programmes.
Consult the articles in full on the IRD Internet site: http://www.ird.fr
© IRD/J.Slembrouck
Extract:
SAS : How is the financial crisis affecting
this sector?
I.G. : The situation is highly variable
depending on the local socio-economic
contexts. However, two effects emerge
quite clearly.
On the lender side, some microfinance
organizations have increasing difficulty in
raising capital. Some of them re-finance
themselves through the banking sector,
and are therefore victims of credit
rationing, like the other economic actors.
On the customer side, it is more dramatic.
In certain situations, the borrowers, whose
economic activity is slowing down, no
longer manage to repay their debts.
Other effects, still difficult to discern, can
be envisaged, with two opposing tendencies. Demand for micro-loans could
increase, in that the classical banking sector is reducing its supply or is more selective concerning its clientele. And, conversely, a decrease in demand for
micro-credit could run parallel to the
downturn in economic activity.
© B. Roussel / A.M. Mollet
Interview
with
Philippe
Busquin,
Chairman
of STOA,
Science and
Technology
Options Assessment Panel of
the European Parliament and
former European commissioner for scientific research. He
gives his thoughts on scientific cooperation between
Europe and countries of the
South.
I.G. : A realistic view of microfinance
must be promoted, because it is a victim
of fashion.
Many actors, for whom it is neither the
vocation nor their profession, become
involved at every level, as investors, operators, with undesired consequences.
Financial backers, enchanted by blind
faith in the benefits of micro-credit,
expect highly positive rapid results. They
want to reach a maximum of people,
commit ever more substantial amounts,
have perfect repayment rates, and all that
without taking measure of the true
impact that can have.
It is also essential and urgent to introduce
regulation measures in this sector, both in
the legislative framework and in the coordination of actions. The issue at stake is to
place the supply of services in a definite
structure in each country, as it is extremely heterogeneous, and control practices
used, because microfinance lacks transparency, particularly regarding interest
rates and terms and conditions for loans.
who live in a situation of great uncertainty and are more likely to seek security for
their lives than to take risks.
And when indeed such an entrepreneur
does emerge, a demand must exist, with
local market outlets.
Very often, businesses resulting from
microfinance come up against a problem
of market absorption, and the emergence
of one of them leads to the disappearance of another.
Microfinance is not therefore an effective
tool for fighting poverty, and we among
many researchers hold this collective position.
In itself, access to financial services for the
poorest people is a necessity and there is
no doubt that microfinance is legitimate
as a tool for fighting against financial
exclusion. But the remedies against
poverty are to be sought elsewhere,
notably in redistribution.
DR
DR
Economist
I s a b e l l e
Guérin calls
into question
the near-miracle virtues
attributed to
microfinance in the fight against
poverty.
DR
p. 16 Interview
p. 1/p. 4 Interview
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