ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY ON MICROCREDIT AND GENDER DEVELOPMENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST ISLAMIC COUNTRIES

本研究项目的目的是掌握一些中东和北非国家小额信贷计划的实际情况，并对其对减贫和性别发展的影响进行人类学研究。该项目的头两年，即2002年至2003年，实地考察工作在突尼斯、摩洛哥、阿尔及利亚和毛里塔尼亚进行。收集了这些国家的小额信贷法律和小额信贷政策的文件，并在小额信贷机构的现场进行了参与者的观察，与官员和受益人进行了访谈。这些实地调查明确了这些国家在MC实践过程中的种类和特点。并对成功和不成功的案例进行了研究。在项目的后半部分，从2005年到2006年，在实地研究中，对成功的可持续性因素和失败的因素进行了同等的调查。中东和非洲MC区域首脑会议以及亚洲和太平洋区域首脑会议提供的信息也有助于比较分析。结果表明，住房抵押贷款的低利率并不总是产生预期的结果和较高的偿还率。事实证明，组织良好、为受益人提供友好和灵活服务的MC方案对高还款率的可持续性以及对减贫和性别发展的影响要大得多。正如在摩洛哥和突尼斯观察到的那样，非政府组织和民间协会的名单也可以成为政府和人民之间的桥梁的一个重要因素。因此，这一研究项目作出了有意义的贡献，澄清了中东和北非实际MC计划中涉及的几个问题，并为它们提出了某些补救措施，尽管观察到的国家数量有限。

The aim of this research project is to grasp the actual situation of the micro credit programs in some of the Middle Eastern and North African countries and to make an anthropological study on its impact on poverty reduction and gender development. The first two years of this project, from 2002 to 2003, the fieldworks were carried out in Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania. The documents of the Micro credit laws and the MC policies of these countries were collected, and the participant observations were conducted on the sites of the MC institutions, interviewing with the officers and the beneficiaries. These field researches clarified the varieties and characteristics in the practicing processes of MC in these countries. The successful and unsuccessful cases were also studied. During the latter half of the project, from 2005 to 2006, the factors of successful sustainability and those of failure were equally investigated in the field researches. The information from the MC Regional Summit of the Middle East and Africa and from that of Asia and the Pacific was also useful for comparative analysis. It is concluded, as a result, that the low interest rates of MC do not always produce the expected outcomes and high repayment rates. Well-organized MC programs with friendly and flexible services for beneficiaries proved to have much more impact on sustainability with high repayment rate as well as on poverty reduction and gender development. The rolls of NGOs and the civil associations can also be an important element for bridging the government and people as observed in Morocco and Tunisia. This research project has thus made meaningful contributions by clarifying several problems involved in the actual MC programs in the Middle East and North Africa and suggesting certain remedies for them, though the number of countries observed are limited.