Trade in financial services : mobile banking in Southern Africa

The report will be discussed at a policy discussion workshop that will being together a select group of policy champions from each of the focus countries to discuss appropriate incentives that encourage innovative bank and non-bank led domestic and international m-banking solutions. In this Introduction, the authors summarize the layout of the report, and then touch upon two over-arching issues that need to be taken into account in reading the report. To set the context for m-banking services in the focus countries, chapter two reviews the demand for m-banking services in Southern Africa, particularly in relation to migrant remittances and cross-border payments of trade-related transactions. This analysis is complemented by some international comparisons set out in annex C. On the supply side, chapter three briefly describes the financial and telecommunications landscape in which the development of m-banking is set. The heart of this study is the country diagnostics set out in annex A, which examine, for each country the regulatory issues that are listed in annex B. For ease of reference, the results of the country diagnostics are summarized in chapter four. The country diagnostics include a number of recommendations to overcome the constraints on the development of accessible m-banking in each country and the region, which are developed further in the draft presentation for the workshop in annex D. The main threads of the key recommendations are brought together and summarized in chapter five.Banks&Banking Reform,Emerging Markets,Access to Finance,E-Business,Remittances

Développement d'un modèle éléments finis du mécanisme de glissement des barrages en remblai avec le code ©Cast3M

International audience Un travail de thèse a été engagé afin de développer une démarche probabiliste permettant d'évaluer la stabilité d'un ouvrage hydraulique en remblai vis-à-vis du mécanisme de glissement à partir des données collectées sur le terrain. L'objectif de l'article est de présenter une modélisation éléments finis du mécanisme de glissement des barrages en remblai réalisée avec le code ouvert ©Cast3M, dans la perspective de l'utiliser dans une analyse probabiliste intégrant une modélisation de la variabilité spatiale des propriétés du remblai. Le modèle éléments finis déterministe présenté permet dans un premier temps de modéliser l'écoulement interne au sein du remblai. Ensuite, un calcul mécanique intégrant les pressions interstitielles permet d'évaluer le facteur de sécurité de l'ouvrage grâce à la méthode de réduction de paramètres. Les résultats du modèle sont validés grâce à une comparaison avec ceux obtenus avec le code éléments finis commercial ©Geostudio. </div

Estimation of CBR index and Compaction Level Through DCP Index for Design and Compaction Control of Low-Volume Roads in Lateritic Soils

International audienc

Probabilistic stability analysis of an earth dam by SFEM based on field data.

International audienceThis paper performs a probabilistic stability analysis for an existing earthfill dam using a Stochastic Finite Element Method (SFEM) and considering the spatial variability of soil properties based on field data. Previous works on probabilistic slope stability analysis are generally based on hypothetical data while using data from existing earth structures is not widespread. A probabilistic procedure based on field data is here implemented to analyze the stability of an existing embankment dam. The spatial variability of several soil properties is modeled from the geostatistical analysis of the available dataset of the dam studied. Random variables and random fields representing the variability of dam materials are integrated into an FE model by performing Monte Carlo simulations (MCS). This probabilistic analysis based on field data allowed to characterize the variability of the sliding safety factor for the case study of an existing dam

Reliability analysis of earth dams sliding mechanism by stochastic finite element method based on construction data

International audienceHydraulic works are risky civil engineering structures and deterministic methods are traditionally used to evaluate their stability. A complete probabilistic approach has been developed to evaluate the structural stability of earth dams based on construction data, involving the spatial variability of the hydraulic and mechanical properties of the dam as it was constructed

Soil dynamic stiffness and wave velocity measurement through dynamic cone penetrometer and wave analysis

International audienceThe main objective of this article is focus on the investigation methods to estimates two important geotechnical soil parameter that are modulus and shear wave velocity by using lightweight dynamic penetrometer called Panda 3®. Firstly, wave equation, decoupling and reconstruction implemented method are presented. Then, the approach to determine soil modulus as well as the soil shear velocity through shock polar curves in frequency domain will be presented. The obtained results are evaluated with other in-situ geotechnical tests. The analysis shows a good accuracy and quality of the measurements. In addition, due to the high resolution of the vertical measurements (around 200 measures/meter), the proposed device, Panda 3, could be a good tool in order to improve shallow soil characterization