François Doligez

Co-optation, Cooperation or Competition? Microfinance and the new left in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua

Abstract The past decade has been marked by the resurgence of leftist political movements across Latin America. The rise of the ‘new left’ masks the ambivalent relationships these movements have with broader society, and their struggle to find an alternative to the prevailing development model. Filling the void left by failed public banks, the microfinance sector has grown significantly across the continent in an increasingly commercial form. Analysis of Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia reveals that their new governments share a common distrust of microfinance. Yet, in the absence of viable alternatives for financial service provision, governments and microfinance stakeholders are forced to coexist. The environment in which they do so varies greatly, depending on local political and institutional factors. Some common trends can nevertheless be discerned. Paradoxically, the sector seems to be polarised into two competing approaches which reinforce the most commercially oriented institutions on the one hand, and the most subsidised on the other, gradually eliminating the economically viable microfinance institutions which have tried to strike a balance between social objectives and the market.

Kafo jiginew au Sud Mali : un partenariat du Crédit coopératif au long cours

Les auteurs reviennent sur l’histoire exemplaire de Kafo jiginew, reseau cooperatif de caisses intervillageoises d’epargne et de credit au Mali, ne en 1985 dans le cadre d’un partenariat entre la Fondation Credit cooperatif et un consortium d’ONG europeennes. Ancree dans la realite malienne, la construction du reseau s’appuie sur les associations villageoises et le poids des leaders coutumiers. Le developpement n’ira pas sans une crise importante dix ans plus tard, dont le denouement impliquera d’accepter le pari d’une direction malienne de Kafo jiginew. Les enseignements sont nombreux, et l’article resitue aussi cette experience dans le contexte de la microfinance en Afrique de l’Ouest, ou les cooperatives d’epargne et de credit occupent une place preponderante. Ce texte constitue la version complete de la contribution de Dominique Gentil et Francois Doligez a l’ouvrage publie en hommage a Jacques Moreau, qui, a la tete du Groupe Credit cooperatif, decida au debut des annees 80 de s’engager dans cette aventure.