BURDEN SHARING AT THE IMF

In the context of the financial governance of the International Monetary Fund, what are the equity implications of the way in which the IMF distributes the cost of running its regular (non-concessionary) lending operations as well as how it funds its concessionary lending and debt relief operations? While the IMF charges borrowers roughly what it pays its creditor members for the resources used in its regular lending operations, its overhead costs (administrative budget plus addition to reserves) are shared between the two groups of members in a less equitable manner. With overhead costs rising inexorably to meet the increasing number and range of responsibilities being placed on the institution – largely at the instance of the IMF‘s principal creditors by virtue of their dominant majority of voting power – the under-representation of the IMF’s debtors undermines the legitimacy of its decision making. With regard to the concessionary lending and debt relief operations, some of the IMF’s funding modalities have involved a substantial contribution by IMF debtors, sometimes under pressure. While this has been accepted as part of an intra-developing-country burden-sharing exercise, it has also significantly reduced the cost to developed countries of meeting their responsibilities to the poorest members of the international community.

THE FUTURE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND

This paper looks at the role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the evolving global financial system from the perspective of developing country interests. It finds that on certain issues, such as the scope and purposes of its lending operations, a consensus has been reached that IMF should continue to serve all its members, including the poorest, and that its resources should be available for supporting macro-relevant structural reforms as well as for dealing with financial crises. On a number of other issues, there remain differences between industrial and developing country views, including on the extension of IMF surveillance to cover the observance of international standards and codes. Largely unsettled are the modalities of the involvement of the private sector in crisis resolution, with special reference to the development of arrangements in the international sphere that would be analogous to domestic bankruptcy procedures, including the declaration of standstills and principles for orderly and equitable debt workouts. The liberalization of the capital account and the choice of exchange regimes are two interconnected areas in which international prescriptions conflict with developing country insistence on the preservation of national autonomy and in favour of intermediate regimes, as opposed to corner solutions. The scope and content of IMF conditionality raises the issue of how to reconcile it with the importance of assuring country ownership. Finally, the governance of IMF poses questions about the exercise of decision-making powers in the institution. Developing country positions are evolving in all these areas, especially on the subject of private-sector involvement in financial crisis prevention and resolution. However, there appears to be a general preference for a more rules-based framework, rather than one derived on a “case-by-case” basis. There are four areas of great interest to developing countries where the international debate has remained muted or has been largely absent in the recent literature: these relate to the surveillance over, and coordination of, the macroeconomic policies of the three principal international currency issuers; the relationship of international and regional arrangements; the distribution of voting power in both IMF and the international system generally, and the future evolution of the international reserve system.

Polymer Retention during Flow of Polymer Solutions through Porous Media

Polymer solution flow and retention through porous media is of interest to many applications in the oil industry such as drilling, water shut-off and enhanced oil recovery. Operators of mature oil and gas fields are faced with the problem of excessive water production (EWP), which can cause a premature abandonment of some oil and gas wells. It has been found that the injection of high molecular weight polymer solutions through the pay zones of the oil and gas wells would induce a sharp decrease of the water production without affecting the oil and gas production. This effect is called disproportionate permeability reduction (DPR) and the polymer solutions inducing such an effect are called relative permeability modifiers (RPM). Hence, the DPR effect has been utilized in the water shut-off or conformance control of oil and gas wells suffering from EWP. In spite of the extensive research of the DPR effect, there is still a lack of agreement on the mechanisms controlling such an effect and relatively high percentage failures are observed during conformance control field applications. Polymer retention in porous media has been attributed to mechanisms such as bridging-adsorption, adsorption-entanglement, and flow-induced adsorption. These mechanisms have been proposed to account for the increase in flow resistance during or after the flow of polymer solutions through porous media. The DPR effect has been attributed to effects induced by this retained polymer such as steric and lubrication effects, wettability change, segregated oil and water pathways, and swelling and shrinking of the adsorbed polymer layer. The aim of this study is to add knowledge on the effect of polymer solution flow on polymer retention in porous media. In this study, the rheology of high molecular weight polymer solutions was studied using a cone-and-plate setup. Moreover, the characteristics and the effective hydrodynamic thickness of adsorbed polymer layers on glass from these polymer solutions under static conditions were investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Also, quartz crystal microbalance with the dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) was used to investigate the effect of increasing the flow rate of polymer solutions on the adsorbed amount on silica and gold surfaces. Additionally, the mobility reduction and the residual resistance as a result of polymer solution flow through single glass capillaries, 2D and 3D models of porous media were studied. The implementation of the above techniques was used to relate the microscopic effect of the flow of the polymer solutions to the polymer retention in the porous media. The anti-thixotropic behaviour of the polymer solutions, which can be attributed to the shearinduced formation of micron-size transient entanglement networks (TEN), is expected to play a major role in the polymer retention in porous media. These microscopic structures can adsorb on the solid surfaces if the adsorption energy of the polymer/solid system is sufficient. Also, in porous media in which mechanical entrapment is possible, these structures can be entrapped in the small pores and pore throats. Two new mechanisms for polymer retention are proposed in this study: transient-entanglement networks adsorption (TENA) and transient-entanglement networks entrapment (TENE). The TENA is the retention mechanism of the TEN structures in flow systems in which mechanical entrapment is not possible provided that the adsorption energy is sufficient. If mechanical entrapment is possible, then the retention by adsorption and mechanical entrapment are lumped in the TENE mechanism. The results from this study have given a new insight on the flow and retention of polymer solutions through porous media. Hence, it is believed that the improved understanding will improve the design of high molecula

The influence of murabahah finance on the relationship between farm credit and agricultural output in Nigeria: a proposed framework

The objective of this paper is to explain the influence of Murabahah finance on the relationship between farm credit and agricultural output.This is because, in most of the advanced countries, agricultural output is a backbone of their economy in terms of food supply, industrial, provision of income, employment opportunities.The importance of agricultural output to the socioeconomic well being, specifically the third world countries are paramount.However, it has been shown that there is a decrease in agricultural output in African economies and Nigeria is inclusive.The decrease of agricultural output in Nigeria is resulted to increase in poverty rate, unemployment, fall in individual and government income, collapsed of the industries etc.Some researchers are of the view that poor credit facilities are part of the main problem hindering the growth of the Nigerian agricultural sector.The current paper proposed a research model which, if validated in an empirical source will assist the advancement of agriculture in Nigeria.Hence, the study seeks to propose the use of Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling PLS in relation to analysis of the data. This paper may directly or indirectly contribute to the policy makers of Nigerian agricultural cooperative and rural development banks and agricultural environment.It provides a sufficient approach for Murabahah finance as a potential moderator of the Model

The viability of Salam finance in the growth of agricultural production in Kano State, Nigeria

Salam finance (sales contract) is a Shariah product used by Islamic financial institutions.It is a transaction in which the payment of the sold commodity is to be made at a spot or immediately after signing the sales contract, while the delivery of the commodity is at the agreed future time.The paper intents to study this Islamic mode of financing agriculture in order to see the way and manner it can enhance the agricultural output of Kano state, being the most populous and agrarian state in Nigeria.This study explores the potentialities of Salam finance.It’s role in the growth of agricultural output to meet the demand level of the state population and provide raw materials for industries. It highlights the historical background of Kano state in terms of agriculture and agribusiness.Almost, 70 percent of the population as is solidly dependent on agriculture and agribusiness as their main source of livelihood.Agriculture contributes a higher percentage to the state revenue before the discovery of petroleum.This paper recommends that, the Kano state micro finance banks, mostly the ones in rural areas should adopt Salam mode of financing.It is expected that the adoption of Salam finance will improve the supply of agricultural output, create more employment opportunities and improve local and modern industries and commerce.It will also promote sustainable growth of the Kano state economy and Nigeria in general.This is a qualitative paper in terms of methodology

Modelling and Simulating the Architecture and Growth of Arecaceae

Agronomists and research engineers, teamed in AMAP Mixed Research Unit, based in CIRAD BIOS structures have developed field observation techniques, based on the concept of plant architectures developed by botanists from Montpellier. Then they developed methods for the statistical analysis of the resulting probability laws and geometrical characteristics along the lines of operational research. Finally AMAP developed a specific software for calculating and simulating Arecaceae plants, which stochastically respects these laws and strategies; this software, is dedicated to the 3D simulation of diverse palm trees, as Elaeis guineensis, Coco nucifera and Phoenix dactylifera. These simulations are able to produce accurate 3D models of the foliage organisation for different cultivars of the same specie and, naturally, these resulting models can be used for studying many components of the palm trees, studies and modeling have been realized on the root system of Elaeis guineensis. All these works have been driven with strong partnerships in the different countries and, particularly with Mediterranean teams. The project MOCAF Phoenix was elected in 2009 by the Euromediterranean "3+3" incitation program, it is a network structured around research teams from Morocco, Tunisia, Italia and France, nowadays the network has guest partnerships from Algeria and is looking forward for the adhesion of other countries interested in date palm culture. The purpose of this network is the using of AMAP modeling tools and methods dedicated to the axes bring by each partnership coming from their own interest of particular uses of Phoenix dactylifera both for harvesting and landscaping. (Texte intégral