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This paper presents the design and implementation of an isolated microgrid developed in La Guajira, north of Colombia. It was designed through the collaboration and capacity building of the community itself. Several activities were developed by the research group in order to improve the technical design. With the objective of reaching a consensus in terms of the final desgin, several visits were made to the community. During the implementation, some new ideas on how to improve the design appeared. In any case, if the microgrid (that uses both solar and wind energy) would be replicated in any other location, we strongly recommend to include, from the beginning, the community needs and the ideas of its inhabitants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to study at firm level the role of public banking as an attenuator of market failures and as development instrument. We analyze the differential characteristics of small and medium enterprises in relation to their funding through private and public banks, comparing Argentina and Brazil. We use the World Bank Enterprise Surveys database. The results are in line with expectations, showing that smaller companies are more likely to have loans in public banks. As differential results between countries, in Argentina the variables that show a negative effect are belonging to the industrial sector, and having a higher percentage of sales devoted to the domestic market. In contrast, in Brazil it adversely affects that the company director is a woman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate a few examples of potential interest to those concerned with problems regarding the technoscientific scientific exchange between North and South from the social studies of science and technology perspective. We present a review of the state of the art of those subjects we discuss, namely: science, technology and development theories; the Green Revolutions; and technoscience and Cold War in the South. We argue that, in order to understand the role of technoscience, both in the South and the North, it is essential to study the dynamics of the technoscientific exchanges between the Third World and the industrialized countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microfinance programs while strategic for poverty alleviation, may have an effect on the education performance of their client's children. This paper uses data from three different surveys of households of clients of microfinance organizations (MFOs) in Bolivia to examine several channels through which microfinance may exert an influence on education performance. Five channels are identified, designated as income, risk-management, child-labor demand, gender, and information effects. The results challenge usual assumptions in microfinance programs. In particular, for some ranges of household income and some types of borrowers, access to loans has conflicting effects on school enrollment. On the one hand, loans increase the demand for education as a result of income, risk-management, gender, and information effects. On the other hand, credit-constrained households that cultivate land or operate labor-intensive micro enterprises discover new demands for child labor, either for farming, working in the micro enterprise, or taking care of siblings while the mothers operate the new or expanded business. Significant program and policy consequences are derived from these paradoxical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]