Abstracts

• The effects of microfinance on poverty reduction
• Medical services in Cambodia seen through the future of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA)
• The future prospects for shrimp aquaculture

Subcommittee A: "Validity of Micro Finance to Poverty reduction"

Members: Masayoshi Okabe, Takehito Suga, Emi Yamaki, Saki Uchida

We often come across various cases of South East Asia in which poverty of rural area was reduced by improving non-agricultural activities like manual industries such as "one village, one product campaign" in Vietnam.
But under this subcommittee, we are questioning whether "Micro Finance," which is famous for Grameen Bank of Prize-winner Muhammad Yunus, is useful for reducing poverty, and researching the relationship between poverty-reduction and Micro finance.
However, Micro Finance is a means beyond the reach of poorest people, and it takes a lot of time for such people to embark on new enterprises.
In this research, we are looking for what kind of approach is possible to the big theme of poverty reduction in rural areas through searching the possibility for poorest people to start up new enterprises by participating Micro Finance.

Subcommittee B: "Medical service in Cambodia seen through the future of TBA"

Members: Makiko Horikawa, Kenro Ishigaki, Kosuke Kato, Naoto Kawabe

The civil war under the influence of Vietnamese War and the slaughter of intellectuals by PolPot administration brought disastrous results such as destruction of medical institutions and a sharp decrease of doctors in Cambodia. Under the existing circumstances of Cambodia, internal medical facilities are not complete both personally and institutionally. In rural parts, NGOs linked up with the government and assistant organizations are doing campaigns for advocacy and education in order to compensate for deficiency of medical equipments in each regions or communities.
Under this subcommittee, we are searching present activities of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) which attend a birth in place of midwives, and thinking their roles after the future establishment of personal supply lines in the field of medical service, in order to clarify what kind of reform measures are needed especially in the level of policy-making.

Subcommittee C: "Future prospects for shrimp aquaculture"

Members: Hiromu Samuta, Takatsugu Kudo, Megumi Yamazaki, Naoto Kawabe

In terms of aquaculture of shrimps, bad effects to the environment are pointed out, such as pollution and deterioration of soil caused by culture ponds, and damage of cutting down mangroves to develop culture ponds.
However, aquaculture of shrimps is an important source of revenue by which people can earn a few times of money than by ordinal agricultures, and it is pointed out for the instability of balance both economically and environmentally.
Under this subcommittee, we are aiming to have a future view of aquaculture centering on shrimps by referring to assistance measures of JICA of Japan, which is an important customer of shrimps.