International Newsletter on
Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #96
1st
March 2013
Summary
Vth URGENCI
Symposium: Monterey California, USA, January 2013
Towards solidarity
micro-finance?
Message from
the editorial team
This number gives us the
opportunity to report on recent developments in two themes on which we have
reported in past issues of our Newsletter. They both testify to the growing
maturity of civil society movements, and their ability to provide genuine
alternatives in terms of local development in both developed and developing
countries.
Judith has been
involved in the URGENCI network now for several years. As we can see, their
recent Symposium took place in California last January. It illustrates the
important progress made in recent years and projects for the future. The fact
that the next one is scheduled to take place in China in 2015 illustrates the
considerable progress of Community-Supported Agriculture on the various
continents. Previous articles on this subject can be found in #47 (2008) and
#64 (2010).
Yvon has gained a deeper insight into
microfinance. He accompanied Mrs Fatoumata Barry of the Mutuelle d’épargne
et de crédit dans le secteur de la pêche artisanale en Guinée (MÉCREPAG) –
a savings and microcredit Mutual Society in the artisanal fishing sector in
Guinea – in the course of her study tour last November in Canada. As a member
of the du Fonds d’emprunt Québec, he has been following this project
aimed at creating a Mutual Fund for microfinance very closely. This is a first
for Canada. Both Mutual funds aim to introduce an approach to microfinance that
we hope will lead to genuine solidarity practice such as that mentioned in our
Newsletter #93 last November for ASSEFA in India.
Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut
Vth URGENCI Symposium: Monterey California,
USA, January 2013
By
Jocelyn Parot
URGENCI, the
international network of Community-Supported Agriculture, reached a new stage
of maturity at the Vth biannual Symposium that was held in Monterey in
California, 20th-23rd January 2013. The first three symposia took
place in Europe - Aubagne, France (2004 and 2008), and Portugal (2005). URGENCI
then successfully organized the first international CSA conference outside
Europe in Japan in 2010. Japan is
generally considered to be the cradle of contract-based partnerships between
consumers and producers. Three years later the next URGENCI conference took
place in the USA, another stronghold of the movement.
URGENCI’s
Contribution to the American CSA movement
The American
CSA movement is currently experiencing a new wave, following the initial surge
of the mid-80s. Whether there are 6,000 CSA programs nation-wide as Steve
McFadden estimates[1],
or if more than 12,500 farms operating a CSA-type marketing model, as USDA estimations
stated in 2010 is irrelevant. What is most important is as Steve McFadden(1)
states, the American CSA is “at a
decisive point. Is it going to become just another “business model” based
primarily on monetary transactions for food? Or will CSA fulfill its ideal
potential to become a model for healthy cells of social well-being,
environmental health, and economic justice?”.
Are the
large-scale box schemes endangering the original CSA concept? Who is in a
position to defend the CSA principles? What is the role of the local networks
in guaranteeing the ethics of new CSA models? Is multi-farm CSA simply a new
type of food co-op?
These questions
were at the heart of the discussions during the farm bus tour on the 22nd
and the Conference itself on the 23rd. The presence of participants
from other American and 6 different continents was certainly beneficial to all
participants, since these issues keep coming to the fore wherever CSA practice
is firmly rooted. Some well-established movements have already gained precious
experience in dealing with these delicate issues. The local participants -
mostly organic family farmers - enjoyed learning through peer-to-peer exchange.
The CSA
Conference had a direct outcome: a US nationwide CSA coalition has been established,
and a strong basis for a Californian CSA network has also been built. This was
achieved thanks to the involvement of an organization that shares much common
ground with URGENCI, including the profile of consumer-producer alliance: CAFF
(Community Alliance with Family Farmers).
The CSA Conference participants thus made history at both local and national
level.
A major
outcome: the new articulation in regional groups
Prior to the
conference, 25 representatives of CSA movements from all over the world made
history by spending two days drafting a regional action plan for the next 2
years. For the first time ever, URGENCI members now have a concrete action plan
to implement on five different continents, with regional groups in charge!
Shinji Hashimoto
(Japan) and Joy Daniel (India), two of Urgenci's Asian International Committee
members during the farm visits.
The new
International Committee of 8 now includes a member for Latin America, as well
as 3 special Ambassadors with specific briefs.
Elizabeth
Henderson, author of the famous CSA manual that has inspired a whole generation
of both farmers and consumers around the world, Sharing the Harvest, generously accepted to become URGENCI’s
Honorary President. She is a retired farmer and lifetime activist. This is a
fair acknowledgement to her huge past contribution to URGENCI.
The next
URGENCI Symposium is scheduled to take place in 2015 in China.
FR-EN-PT-ES
http://blog.urgenci.net/
Towards solidarity microfinance?
By Yvon Poirier
Microcredit has become a very widespread
phenomenon on all continents in recent years, particularly since Mohamad Yunus
was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2008. According to those who promote
microcredit, it is a tool that enables the poor – particularly women – to
overcome poverty. Yet there has been increasing evidence that not only is it
not a solution, but it frequently allows investors to grow rich at the expense
of the poor, whose indebtedness increases.
Milford Bateman presented the theory he puts
forward in his book published in 2010[2],
« Why doesn’t microfinance work? », during a conference
he gave in Canada. The secondary title of the book is: The Destructive Rise
of Local Neoliberalism. It explains how in many if not the majority of
cases microfinance is a poverty trap. Scandals in India, with Mafia-type loan
sharks (that have even led to suicide), are very harmful. He also indicates
that it is less and less viewed as a development tool, and that the big institutions,
such as the World Bank no longer promote it. Although the book raises much
controversy, it does put its finger on the problems we have already raised in
this Newsletter.
The dominant model has been mainly based on
proposing microcredit from outside institutions, as a result of the support
gained from the Nobel Prize. Others have made the choice of establishing
people-led institutions. Thus when the legal framework is that of a mutual or a
cooperative where the clients are members – and therefore associated with the
governance – they provide a response that is genuinely adapted to the needs of
local populations. Here is a brief overview of two such initiatives.
The Mutuelle d’épargne et de crédit dans
le secteur de la pêche artisanale en Guinée (MÉCREPAG), a
savings’ and credit mutual in the artisinal fishing sector in Guinea was
founded in 2006. It is the result of an association built with the national
union of artisinal fishers in Guinea. In just a few years, MÉCRÉPAG has built
up five local branches. In 2012 they had 10,000 individual members, 65% of whom
are women. The loans that are granted allow fishers to buy outboard motors for
their boats, and the women to smoke fish as well as to buy and sell fish at the
market. Training on management of local cooperatives, healthcare
loan-management are available to members. Both local branches as well as the
mutual itself are governed by members who have been elected by the members’
assembly.
During a visit in Canada in November 2012.
Yvon Poirier, Gérald Arsenault and Robert Gallant from Acadian Fishermen’s
Co-Op, MsFatoumata Barry from MÉCREPAG
In Canada, microcredit has been present in
most regions for the last twenty years. Until recently the microcredit
association were incorporated on the basis of not-for-profit organisations.
After 15, this model was considered to have shown its limits, so the Fonds
d’emprunt Québec, situated in the city of Quebec, decided to evolve, and
switch to a savings and loan mutual, in order to propose loans to the
disadvantaged as well as to promote savings and micro-insurance. Thus the Fonds
d’emprunt Québec, a relatively small organisation, has developed a draft
law that was adopted by the Quebec national assembly in December 2012. The new
Mutuelle de microfinance (Québec) is the first of its kind in Canada.
Clients of this new organisation are members, and can therefore elect their
representatives to the Board and vote in General Assemblies. This was not
previously the case.
Although the socio-economic contexts are very
different, both these examples illustrate how it is possible to create
institutions by and for the people involved, and that they can also participate
in their governance. This provides an alternative to microcredit, that in most
countries is proposed by outside organisations that are not an integral part of
the community.
In French
WEBINAR EN-FR
About the Newsletter
This Newsletter
is published in French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia and in
Japanese. It has been produced on a totally voluntary basis since the first
issue in 2003.
The Editorial
team wishes to thank the following volunteers for their support in translation
and revision:
Michel Colin (Brazil)
Paula Garuz Naval (Ireland)
Évéline Poirier (Canada)
Brunilda Rafael
(France)
We also wish to
thank the Civil Policy Research Institute (CPRI) of Seikatsu Club in Japan for
the Japanese translation and AKSI UI for the translation to Bahasa Indonesia.
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are available on the WEB:
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Yvon Poirier
ypoirier@videotron.ca
