APPLICATION OF ISLAMIC MODES FOR MICROFINANCE IN SUDAN: A CASE STUDY OF RAHAD SCHEME

     Microfinance has become one of the most important mechanisms to fight poverty and economic development in the world. Sudan like other developing countries is depending on microfinance to achieve poverty alleviation and economic development. The Central Bank of Sudan has adopted microfinance programs since it is one of the appropriate mechanisms that help banks to perform their social and economic role. The idea of solidarity groups (SGs) started in Bangladesh as a solution of the warranty problem that cannot secured by small farmers. In Sudan solidarity groups are primarily introduced by the Agricultural Bank of Sudan (Fau branch) to help small farmers in the Rahad agricultural scheme who lack the sufficient guarantee to a quire loans needed to fulfill their agricultural production obligations. The aim of this paper has two folds, first to outline microfinance environment and policies of Sudan under Islamic modes, second synthesize empirical study on the case of Rahad scheme as an example for microfinance with Islamic modes to identify socioeconomic factors affecting farmer's decision to join solidarity groups. The study used secondary data to review the general environment of finance through Islamic forms in Sudan, for the case under study, a primary data were collected using structured questionnaire, a sample of 120 farmers (60 farmers joined solidarity group and 60 of self-financed farmers) were selected randomly from the scheme. A binary logistic regression model (Logit) was used to estimate the correlation between the dependent variable of joining of the solidarity groups, and independents variables namely, educational level, farm location, machinery possession, marital status, land ownership, animal's ownership, risk exposure and financial ability. A paired samples (T) test used to examine and estimate the difference between two paired samples means of costs and returns. The reviewed policies of Islamic microfinance modes in Sudan showed a positive environment for credit including devoting 12 percent of the total investment portfolio of each bank to microfinance credit, in addition to introducing guarantee services via the insurance companies, and suitable repayment period with low interest. The empirical results of the Logit regression showed that four variables were statistically significant in affecting the farmers’ decision of joining SGs namely are educational level, machinery ownership, financial ability and the type of land tenure. While the factors of farm location, risk exposure, and animal ownership are not significant. The paired samples (T) test used to examine and estimate the difference between two paired samples means (solidarity group and self-financed), the results showed that there are no significant differences between the means of cost and returns for the two groups, which indicate that the bank finance has no financial burden on the SGs farmers. The study recommends generalization of the solidarity group's finance in the irrigated sector of the Sudan

La crise de l’économie soudanaise dans les années 80

Le Soudan indépendant a connu la ruine de ses rêves ambitieux, le non-accomplissement de ses objectifs nationaux et l'échec total des programmes économique et politique qui visaient à sortir le pays de son héritage colonial. Les secteurs de production pour la consommation extérieure et l'exportation ont été et continuent d'être dépendants, n'enregistrant au mieux que des changements insignifiants. Les secteurs productifs et leurs structures restent faibles, sans liens les uns avec les autres,..

La crise de l'enseignement au Soudan

L'éducation est en général considérée comme générant une part des conditions indispensables au fonctionnement et à la reproduction d'une société. Elle le fait d'abord en assurant les apprentissages minimaux nécessaires à la vie quotidienne dans les sociétés modernes (lecture, écriture, expression et rudiments d'arithmétique). Mais elle procure aussi une certaine familiarité avec les éléments de base de l'héritage culturel de la société d'appartenance, ainsi qu'avec ses rouages économiques, se..

Neuro-GPT: Developing A Foundation Model for EEG

To handle the scarcity and heterogeneity of electroencephalography (EEG) data for Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) tasks, and to harness the power of large publicly available data sets, we propose Neuro-GPT, a foundation model consisting of an EEG encoder and a GPT model. The foundation model is pre-trained on a large-scale data set using a self-supervised task that learns how to reconstruct masked EEG segments. We then fine-tune the model on a Motor Imagery Classification task to validate its performance in a low-data regime (9 subjects). Our experiments demonstrate that applying a foundation model can significantly improve classification performance compared to a model trained from scratch, which provides evidence for the generalizability of the foundation model and its ability to address challenges of data scarcity and heterogeneity in EEG

Correlation of ultrasonographic estimated fetal weight with actual birth weight at a rural setting

Background: Ultrasound estimation of fetal weight in term pregnancies is used to determine fetal growth. The objective of this study was to assess the precision of sonographic estimation of fetal weight in normal vaginal deliveries at a rural setting.Methods: The study was cross-sectional. A group of 74 pregnant women delivered normally in Muglad hospital in West Kordofan, Sudan, were considered in the study. Fetal weight was estimated by Hadlock and shephards formulae within one week prior to delivery and then newborn weight was taken within 24 hours after delivery. Data were collected by a questionnaire and medical examination as well as sonographic examination. Data analysis was done by SPSS version 23 and Kruskal Wallis Test (post-hoc analysis) Pearson’s correlation coefficient within 95% confidence interval. p value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.Results: The correlation, by Paired sample, to assess fetal weight was as follows: between Hadlock and shephards was 0.901 (p < 0.001), between Hadlock and AFW was 0.908 (p < 0.001) and between Shephards and AFW was 0.781 (p < 0.001).Conclusions: Estimation of fetal weight by Hadlock has been more correlated with actual fetal weight (AFW) than that done with shephards. The study recommends using Hadlock formula which is more accurate in estimation of fetal weight by sonography

May Measurement Month 2017: an analysis of blood pressure screening in Sudan-Northern Africa and Middle East

Elevated blood pressure (BP) is a growing burden worldwide, leading to over 10 million deaths each year. Sudan has the second highest prevalence of hypertension in North Africa. One in four people with a non-communicable disease has hypertension. May Measurement Month (MMM) is a global initiative, aimed at raising awareness of high BP to act as a temporary solution to the lack of screening programs worldwide. The MMM screening survey provided an opportunity to correlate between unique risk factors and BP levels among Sudanese population. Such an approach allows for directing efforts towards setting the appropriate preventive measures as opposed to disease treatment. An opportunistic cross-sectional survey of volunteers aged ≥18 was carried out in May 2017. Blood pressure measurement, the definition of hypertension and statistical analysis followed the standard MMM protocol. The study was conducted at 100 sites distributed in four states: Khartoum, Gezira, Blue Nile, and Kassala. Overall, a total of 44 413 participants were enrolled in the survey. After imputation, 7332 out of 44 118 participants with an available mean of the second and third readings had hypertension (16.6%). A total of 6956 (15.9%) participants were found to have hypertension of the 43 742 who were not receiving treatment. Among participants who were on treatment, 155 out of 374 (41.3%) had uncontrolled BP. After adjusting for age and sex, systolic and diastolic BP's were significantly higher in those receiving antihypertensive treatment, with a previous history of stroke and with elevated body mass index. Systolic BP was significantly higher in people with diabetes and with previous myocardial infarction. Smoking was associated with increased diastolic BP and decreased systolic BP. Alcohol intake as well as BP measurement on left vs. right arm had no association with BP reading. The MMM17 was the largest BP screening campaign ever held in the country. A considerable percentage of detected hypertensives were not on treatment with a significant proportion of uncontrolled hypertension among those on treatment. These results suggest that opportunistic screening can identify significant numbers with raised BP