Cette thèse a pour objet l’analyse des potentialités et limites de la microfinance dans la création ou la consolidation d’emploi au Sénégal. Elle combine une analyse de la demande et de l’offre, en étudiant à la fois le fonctionnement de certaines filières d’activité et le rôle qu’y joue la microfinance, les stratégies d’implantation des IMFs puis la crise des impayés et de surendettement au Sénégal qui est actuellement en émergence. Dans cette thèse trois grandes questions essentielles sont abordées. S’inspirant d’une approche en termes de filières, une première question s’intéresse à la demande et analyse les potentialités et limites de la microfinance dans le financement de différents secteurs d’activité comme la pêche artisanale, le mareyage, la transformation de produits halieutiques, le commerce et l’artisanat. Nos analyses mettent en évidence d’une part l’existence de barrières multiples à la dynamisation de ces filières, qui vont bien au-delà de l’accès au crédit, et d’autre part la présence de diverses formes de financement informel, souvent peu couteux, facilement accessibles et plus adaptés à l’irrégularité et la saisonnalité des activités. Au final, dans le contexte actuel, la microfinance se révèle peu adaptée. S’inspirant des économies de proximité, une seconde question s’intéresse à l’offre et étudie les stratégies d’implantation des institutions de microfinance. Nos analyses mettent en évidence deux stratégies principales : celles qui privilégient l’agglomération dans des zones à fort potentiel humain et économique, créant ainsi une concentration de la microfinance et une forte concurrence ; et celles qui en revanche se spécialisent et s’ancrent sur un territoire spécifique. Une troisième question combine les deux points de vue – offre et demande – pour étudier la crise émergente des impayés. Nos analyses suggèrent que cette crise combine différents facteurs, les dérives de mission, le relâchement dans les règles de gestion et de gouvernance et des facteurs politiques. / The object of this thesis is to analyze the potential and limits of microfinance in the creation or preservation of employment in Senegal. It combines an analysis of supply and demand, by studying together some value chains and the role played by microfinance therein, MFIs’ establishment strategies, and issues related to unpaid-loan and over-indebtedness in Senegal that is now emerging. Three main questions are addressed in this thesis. Inspired by a value chain approach, the first question concerns the demand and analyses the potential and limits of microfinance in the financing of different sectors like artisanal fishing, fish trade, processing of marine products, trading and craftsmanship. The analysis reveals on one hand the existence of multiple barriers to the dynamism of these value chains which go far beyond access to credit and on the other hand the presence of diverse forms of informal financing, often less costly, easier to access and more adapted to the irregularity and seasonal nature of the activities. One conclusion is that, in the present context microfinance is not well suited. Using the model of local economy, the second question is related to supply and studies microfinance institutions establishment strategies. Findings evidence two main strategies: one that is centered on cities with a high human and economic potential, creating therefore a concentration of microfinance and strong competition; and the other that are more specialized and are territory-specific. The third question combines the two points of view – supply and demand – to study the emerging unpaid-loan issue. Our results show that several reasons preside to this issue, including a loss of cap in the mission, loose management and governance rules enforcement and political factors.

In a world where almost half of the population lives in poverty, the alleviation of poverty is a serious developmental challenge for many states. Microfinance has grown in popularity as a means for achieving poverty reduction all over the world. Due to the success of microfinance institutions, such as the Grameen Bank, in achieving self-sufficiency and improving the lives of its clients, the expectations for similar institutions are high. MFIs attempt to find a balance between business and development goals. It is not necessarily a contradiction to be a business seeking profit as well as being an institution committed to development. However, the values coupled with these two objectives are sometimes conflicting. Thus it is important to see how equilibrium can be achieved and to note what sacrifices must be made in order to reach a balance. This thesis will focus on examining and assessing the challenges faced by South African MFIs in balancing development goals while at the same time having to be self-sufficient. The Small Enterprise Foundation will be used as a case study to consider the particular experiences of a South African MFI. The evaluation of the unique challenges that the South African landscape presents will provide a context in which to understand microfinance operations and a clearer understanding of the particular problems and challenges faced by the South African micro-finance industry in balancing the achievement of development goals against the imperative to be self sustainable in providing services to the poor. Through that understanding the common conception of what makes a “successful” MFI will also be challenged.

This study is an investigation into poverty coping strategies of microfinance and its social performance in crisis environments using empirical evidence from Zimbabwe. Microfinance has close association with informal microcredit, mainly self-help schemes and Government led rural agricultural credit, which was based on the idea of lending for the poor up to the 1960s through to the early 1970s. Whilst informal microcredit was viewed to be a success on many forms for some decades, it was clear that tailor-made changes were needed to respond specifically to the poor’s financial needs and help them fight poverty. Thus, it was seen as necessary to experiment on an institution based/formal financial service sector for the poor in the late 1970s through to the 1990s, which could perhaps tackle poverty reduction more systematically and effectively. In this, microcredit transformed into microfinance having incorporated more financial services on offer in addition to credit and was regarded as the new step forward and backed by several development agencies including the United Nations. In fact, microfinance was hailed as the most innovative poverty alleviation tool, able to deal with poverty whilst at the same time generating sufficient extra income to cover operating costs. Over four decades on since its inception, the microfinance sector has grown tremendously but, as is commonly acknowledged, the shackles of global poverty are just as visible as ever and in some cases are even stronger. This study critically explores and analyses the state of the microfinance sector in Zimbabwe following a recent political, economic and social crisis characterised by hyperinflation reaching six figure digits, which led to a revamp of the microfinance sector in 2009. The findings this study reflect a systematic departure of the original hopes and ideals of microfinance as a poverty-reduction centred programming to that of a profit-led business approach and the emergence of a new breed of microfinance institutions (MFIs). In this new world of “microfinance”, very poor social performance causing distressful situations for borrowers where in certain instances have been known to take their own lives (as In India) due to debt pressures has been witnessed. Ironically, also visible are the microfinance millionaires and successful MFI banks floating on the stock. Not surprisingly, as a result, microfinance has attracted a lot of public scrutiny particularly among academics and policy makers with its credibility as a poverty alleviation tool being seriously questioned. Consequently, both the supporters of microfinance wanting to prove that microfinance reduces poverty as well as the critics of microfinance wishing to discredit those results have carried out several randomised-control trials (RCT) impact studies. In some cases previous studies that had claimed that microfinance reduces poverty were revisited by opposing academics in an effort to refute findings. However, both supporters and critics each found just as much evidence for both positive impact in reducing poverty in some places as well as the negative impact on poverty elsewhere. Neither side could be conclusive about whether microfinance actually does help to reduce poverty. As discussed in the literature review, this resulted in a surge in the number of available studies on the subject of microfinance impact, prompting even more systematic reviews of such studies in an attempt to reconcile the critical question of the role of microfinance in poverty reduction. As before, the systematic reviews also confirmed just as much evidence in favour of microfinance positive impacts on poverty as those against in the negative impacts, thereby failing yet again to provide conclusive evidence on either side of the argument. Such arguments suggest that microfinance delivered in a certain way and under certain conditions can help reduce poverty, but may equally have little effect at all on poverty or can even worsen the poverty situation of individuals when delivered under certain conditions and in a certain way. To the best of my knowledge, no known previous studies have attempted to associate the model of microfinance delivery and conditions to ascertain whether different forms of microfinance operations can produce different impact on poverty even where conditions are similar in order to inform best practice for social performance and help poor individuals to cope with high income-risks. High income-risk is part of life for most people in Zimbabwe as in other developing countries. Zimbabwe was affected by frequent droughts, political turmoil, extreme economic challenges due to sanctions and questionable economic policies between 2000 and 2008, and finally the global financial crisis of 2007/8, creating extraordinarily harsh operating environment for microfinance institutions, characterised by depleted loan portfolio investment, skyrocketing inflation eroding the loan book value and growing default rates. The country’s GDP declined by about 40 percent during the period. Hyperinflation in 2007-2008 peaked at 500 billion percent leading to the collapse of the national currency in February 2009. The Zimbabwean dollar disappeared from circulation in instant literarily forcing MFIs and other financial institutions to freeze all balances in their books which was in local currency and raise new capital in the US dollar and South African Rand. The political and economic challenges negatively affected the Zimbabwean microfinance “industry,” causing the sector to suffer significantly. Both the number of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the country and the quality and range of services were eroded. Capital, social performance, and viability concerns plagued the microfinance sector forcing the government to introduce sector specific regulation with immediate minimum capital requirement for MFIs resulting in small institutions leaving the market, increasing monopoly by large institutions. Within this uncertainty of the role and effectiveness of microfinance in poverty reduction, and the difficult political and economic circumstances that Zimbabweans have experienced recently, this study looked at the coping strategies of microfinance stakeholders including practitioners and regulators. It employed an exploratory inductive approach using mixed methods methodology. This included a survey questionnaire using both closed and open-ended questions randomly administered to 60 registered microfinance clients and potential clients collecting both qualitative and quantitative data. In addition, comprehensive case assessments were carried out on 3 MFIs. The assessments concluded that there exist two different approaches to microfinance: (1) the Capital Market Driven (CMD) approach characterised by private equity investments and (2) the Poverty Reduction Driven (PRD) approach characterised by emphasis on poverty alleviation and social performance. This thesis argues that the two approaches may have very different impact on poverty. Therefore, a clear distinction between the CMD and PRD are necessary in debates about microfinance impact, whether positive or negative.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / The overall objectives of this thesis were to assess the theory and evaluate the development roles of MFIs in Uganda and Bangladesh. The study in particular focused on MFIs impact on poverty reduction, empowering women, promoting health, as well as promoting children's education in Uganda and Bangladesh. The study preferred the selected countries because Bangladesh is internationally considered as the best practice for microfinance, whilst Uganda is assumed to be well-positioned in terms of microfinance as compared to other developing countries in Africa. The question that guided this empirical investigation was whether MFIs empower women, reduce poverty, promote children's education as well as health among its beneficiaries in Uganda and whether Bangladesh has important lessons of experience for Uganda. / South Africa

L’Organisation des Nations Unies a décrété l’année 2005 « année du microcrédit », dans l’espoir de réduire la pauvreté dans le monde, conformément aux huit objectifs du millénaire pour le développement (OMD). Présenté comme un précieux instrument de lutte contre la pauvreté, ce système créé par le Docteur Muhammad YUNUS prix Nobel de la Paix 2006 et fondateur de la Grameen Bank au Bangladesh, s’est propagé à travers le monde et notamment dans les pays en développement. Il permet d’offrir des petits prêts à des populations pauvres exclues du système financier afin de développer des activités génératrices de revenus et d’épargner. Plus connu sous le nom de la microfinance, ce terme désigne aujourd’hui, le microcrédit, l’épargne, le transfert d’argent et l’assurance. En effet, l’accès aux prêts n’excluait pas les autres risques, car le décès, la maladie, l’invalidité et les dommages aux biens fragilisaient aussi ces populations, révélant leur besoin d’assurance et il est évident que la prise de conscience de leur état de pauvreté, suscite la réduction de leur vulnérabilité. Une logique sous-tend l’offre par le biais de la « microassurance » dont le champ sémantique et opérationnel relève des compétences des assureurs qui en se lançant sur ce marché, doivent faire face à de nombreux défis car la microassurance s’inscrit dans des contextes bien spécifiques. Entre innovations et traditions, la démarche sera conçue dans le cadre d'une politique intégrée avec les Etats, acteurs traditionnels du développement, institutions de microfinance, organisations non gouvernementales et bailleurs de fonds internationaux, dont l'appui était essentiel. En dix ans, la microassurance a connu une croissance extraordinaire. Mais malgré les efforts accomplis, le bilan montre qu’il reste encore du chemin à faire. / The United Nations declared 2005 as the « Year of Microcrédit », in the hopes of reducing the level of world poverty, as part of the eight main objectives of the millennium development goals " OMD ". Presented as a valuable tool against poverty, this system created by Doctor Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Price, and founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, is used throughout the world and most notably in developing countries.It allows " small loans " to impoverished populations which are excluded from financial systems so that they can develop activities that generate income as well as offer them the opportunity to save. More known as " microfinance", this term refers today, microcredit, savings, money transfer and insurance.Indeed, access to loans does not exclude other risks such as death, sickness, invalidity, as well as potential damages to capital goods. These numerous risks show their absolute need for insurance and it is obvious that awareness of their poverty will reduce their vulnerability.A development logic behind the offer through the " microinsurance " whose semantics and operational field within the competence of insurers embark on this market have to overcome a number of challenges as the field of " microinsurance " are in very specific and often difficult contexts.Between innovative and traditional, the approach will be integrated policy with the states, the traditional development actors, microfinance institutions, ONGs, international donors, whose support was essential.In ten years, " microinsurance " has experienced a extraordinary growing. But despite the progress that has been made, the resume shows that there is still much work to do.

La micro-finance vise à favoriser l'accès aux services financiers pour les personnes vulnérables exclues du système bancaire traditionnel. Elle apparaît en cela comme un outil de réduction des inégalités, notamment de genre, vis-à-vis de l'accès au crédit. Toutefois, en s'appuyant sur le cas de la principale institution de micro-finance tunisienne, ce travail de recherche montre que lorsque les conditions de crédit octroyées sont examinées, l'objectif de réduction des inégalités ne semble pas pleinement atteint. En effet, si l'institution favorise effectivement les femmes en ce qui concerne l'accès au microcrédit, et malgré le moindre risque qui représentent les femmes pour l'institution, celles-ci reçoivent malgré tout des montants de crédit inférieurs aux hommes, et ce tout au long de leur historique de crédit. En particulier, les femmes les plus ambitieuses sont les plus rationnées. La mise en perspective des analyses sur micro-données, données expérimentales et sur l'impact d'une formation sur les agents de crédit laisse penser que les inégalités hommes-femmes existantes en Tunisie et chez les clients participent de la construction de stéréotypes de genre chez les agents de crédit. Dans la mesure où une certaine place est laissée à la subjectivité dans les procédures d'octroi actuelles, certaines inégalités se reproduisent plus qu'elles ne se réduisent. / Microfinance aims at facilitating access to financial services for vulnerable people excluded from the traditional banking system. In that regard, it appears as a key tool to reduce inequalities, especially between men and women, to access credit. However, on the basis of a case study about the main Tunisian microfinance institution, this research work shows that when considering the loan conditions granted, the objective of inequality reduction is not fully achieved. If the institution indeed favors women in terms of access to credit, and despite the lesser risk female clients represent for the institution, women still receive lower loan amounts than men all along their credit history. The most ambitious women are in particular the most rationed ones. Putting the analyses on microdata, experimental data and impact assessment of a training on loan officers into perspective suggests that gender inequalities existing in Tunisia and among clients contribute to create gender-based stereotypes among loan officers. Since current granting procedures leave some room for subjectivity, some inequalities are reproduced instead of reduced.

Cette thèse a pour objet la compréhension des mécanismes de diffusion de la microfinance en relation avec les questions de genre en Haute-Guinée. En effet, l’examen des rapports sociaux en Haute-Guinée laisse entrevoir des disparités de genre au détriment des femmes. Majoritairement elles touchées par de nombreuses inégalités d’ordre socio-économique, culturel et politique : elles sont peu ou pas du tout impliquées dans le processus de prise de décision ; leur niveau d’instruction et de formation sont faibles par rapport à ceux des hommes ; elles sont exclues du contrôle des ressources productives et économiques (terres, arbres fruitiers, mines, pêche…). Cet état de fait a pour conséquence la dévalorisation de leur statut social, la charge considérable du travail domestique et surtout la paupérisation généralisée des femmes. Face à ces réalités, certaines femmes s’inscrivent dans des logiques d’emprunt de microcrédits pour démarrer, renforcer ou encore diversifier les activités génératrices de revenus dans les secteurs du commerce, de l’artisanat et de l’agriculture. C’est dans la perspective d’approfondir ce défi que cette thèse tente d’analyser les effets de la microfinance sur la vie des femmes de cette région de la Guinée.A partir d’une approche méthodologique essentiellement qualitative, l’examen des réalités de terrain révèle que la microfinance n’est pas une solution miracle pour lutter contre la pauvreté des femmes et les inégalités de genre. Elle peut tout aussi produire des effets inverses débouchant sur l’aggravation de leur situation économique et sociale (surendettement, pauvreté, migration, exclusion, divorce, prostitution, exposition au VIH/SIDA). / The purpose of this dissertation is the understanding of the mechanisms of the development of microfinance in relation to gender issues in Upper Guinea, in the republic of Guinea. Indeed, the examination of social relations in Upper Guinea suggests gender disparities to the detriment of women. They are disproportionately affected by many socio-economic, cultural, and political inequalities: they have little or no involvement at all in the decision-making process; they have very low levels of education and training in comparison to men; they have no control over productive and economic resources (trees, fruit trees, mines, fishing, among others). This situation results in the devaluation of their social status, significant domestic workload, and above all, women’s generalized impoverishment. Confronted with this reality, some women adhere to the logic of borrowing, which is based on micro-credits in order to start, strengthen or diversify income generating activities in the trade, crafts and agriculture sectors. For the purpose of further exploring that issue, this dissertation attempts to analyze the effects of microfinance on women’s life in this region of Guinea.Using a methodological approach, which is primarily qualitative, the examination of field realities shows that microfinance is not a miracle solution to fight poverty among women and gender inequalities. It may just as well produce opposite effects resulting in the worsening of their economic and social situation (over-indebtedness, poverty, migration, exclusion, divorce, prostitution, exposure to HIV/AIDS).

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of microfinance in the Sekhukhune District, Limpopo Province. The Hulme’s Impact Framework and the Capabilities Approach were used to understand the role of microfinance. A qualitative approach was used to gain an insight into the perspective of both the beneficiaries and the providers of microfinance. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect in-depth data from 30 participants from two developmental Microfinance Institutions operating in the Sekhukhune District. The results showed that Microfinance offered a variety of services, such as savings, small loans as well as business and health education, mainly to women who were interested in doing business. Loan eligibility for the institutions depended on both the ability to pay back and to save. Failure to pay back resulted in being excluded from the programme. Although loans were meant for business purpose, some clients found a way to use them for income smoothening and loan repayment. Overall, the results indicate that microfinance was used to supplement other government poverty-eradication tools such as monthly grants to the elderly and children. Moreover, microfinance is perceived by both beneficiaries and providers to bring about both economic and social capabilities. It was also revealed that, even though microfinance has some benefits, there are still some challenges faced in the industry. Beneficiaries perceived the interest rate to be satisfactory microfinance. However, the interest rates charged by the Microfinance Institutions is higher than what is charged by commercial banks. In the quest to cover operational costs, such interest rates that have left some of the poor in an unending cycle of poverty. Based on the findings, this study recommends that, the government should come up with other intervention strategies in addition to supplement microfinance. For instance, to help micro-entrepreneurs, the government could assist by building smaller shops to rent out to micro-entrepreneurs they could sell their goods. In addition, the government should build financial systems that work for the poor; create legal systems which that encourage market entry. / Economics / M. Com. (Economics)

The thesis empirically examined the implications of microfinance scaling up or sustainability on outreach in Nigeria. Basically, two methodologies were used namely, panel data econometric and survey methods. The panel dataset of 752 microfinance banks in Nigeria was used during the period 2011-2014, while the survey was conducted on some selected microfinance banks in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja in 2014. The findings from the thesis showed that, at the national level, yield, labour cost, orientation, efficiency, gender and size of loans are the major drivers of microfinance banks‟ sustainability in Nigeria. While at the state level, microfinance banks sustainability is driven by orientation and loan size. Findings also showed that sustainable MFBs tend to be more focused on the poor clients. The thesis showed that lending to female clients improves repayment rate of MFBs in Nigeria. Corroborating the regression result, the survey findings also suggest that lending to women had improved and enhanced repayment rate. In view of these findings, the thesis recommends that sustainability and outreach are not necessarily incompatible. However in pursuing sustainability greater attention should be on female clients, as greater lending to women would improve the repayment rate of MFBs and further engendered the industry sustainability.

Feminist research as well as the growing field of ‘Men and Masculinities’ have identified how targeting women and excluding men from development initiatives could have unintended repercussions. As a common tool for development, microfinance is a fitting representation for this emphasis on women. At the same time, Microfinance Investment Funds (MFIFs) have emerged as established actors within the microfinance landscape, and their potential to shape microfinance approaches has been highlighted within literature. This thesis builds upon this previous research to delve into the discourses of MFIFs concerning men and masculinities within the context of microfinance initiatives. Using a theoretical framework that intersects models of empowerment and hegemonic masculinity, the thesis explores the extent to which MFIF discourses incorporate men and masculinities, as well as attempting to explain the presence or absence of these discourses. An analysis reveals that there is mixed alignment with models of empowerment and a lack of discussions concerning men and masculinities.