UN MICROCREDIT POUR ACHETER UNE VACHE : ... ET LE MIRACLE N'AURA PAS LIEU HISTOIRE D'UNE INNOVATION EN INDE DU SUD

N° ISBN - 978-2-7380-1284-5<br/>N° ISBN - 978-2-7380-1284-5

International audience

إنجليزي. Microfinance is presented by a large majority of the organizations in charge of development, World Bank, NGOs and Governments, as the solution in the fight against poverty. This article intends to show how a simple, exiting idea, turn into an extremely complex system, complex for the organizations in charge of the implementation but also for the rural families supposed to benefit from it. This complexity precludes not only from anticipate the effects of this innovation on populations, but it prevents from setting ex-ante rules, controls or any other form of truly reliable effects monitoring. It is only with modesty and ex post that research can identify, test and propose services, or even correction of unexpected effects of implemented innovations. The Indian Government program SGSY is a good example. The article present first the theory of this program, the results expected, and how this operation had all guarantees of an economically viable and socially acceptable program. Then we show, based on empirical data base, how families manage the "cows" credits, either by “diverting" it ("fungibility credits"),or by changing the way they handle 'bought cows'. We will show how other actors in the immediate environment of rural families interfere a, modify the process (NGOs, banks). We will conclude on the limits of an innovation developed too quickly with a very large number of families without real follow-up, support and evaluation