Foster Business Library


Microfinance Resources


Foster Business Library research guides are aimed at University of Washington students, faculty, and staff, highlighting resources available to them; users not currently affiliated with the university may be unable to access some of these resources.
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Foster Business Library Databases:

The Foster Business Library offers an extensive collection of over fifty databases on its homepage; see under Databases. For a complete list of Foster databases, see the List of All Business Databases. Access to these databases from off campus requires that you first go to the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. These resources may not be accessed from off campus except by those with a valid UW Net ID and password. For more information on Foster business databases, click Databases, A-Z. For information on which Foster business databases to use, see the Database Index. For information on accessing Foster databases from off campus, see Database Access. For guidelines on responsible database usage, see Database Usage.

  • EconLit:   Produced by the American Economic Association, EconLit is the fundamental research tool in economics. The database provides bibliographic citations, with selected abstracts, to the international literature on economics since 1969. Econ Lit corresponds to the Journal of Economic Literature and the Index of Economic Articles, covering journal articles, books, and dissertations, as well as articles in collective works, such as conference proceedings and collected essay volumes.

    A search in this database for Microfinance produced more than 300 references, including over 120 references in journals, over 90 references in peer-reviewed journals, forty references in books, and two book reviews.

  • Gale Virtual Reference Library:   On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under List of All Business Databases.   The Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research; go to Business for three major business sources:   the Encyclopedia of American Industries (4th ed., 2005), the Encyclopedia of Business and Finance (2001), and the Encyclopedia of Small Business (2nd ed., 2002).

    See Grameen Bank, in the 2002 Encyclopedia of Modern Asia.

  • JSTOR:   This database may be found under List of All Business Databases. JSTOR is a subject searchable index of 360 journals, with full-text backfiles of scholarly journals, some of which date back to the 1800's. Among the collections of scholarly journals on this site are ones for Business and for Economics, encompassing over seventy journals.

    A search for Microfinance, limited to full text documents, produced a list of over 100 references, including reviews of books on this topic.

  • Social Sciences Citation Index:   Included under Databases on the Foster Business Library homepage. This database "is a multidisciplinary index, with searchable author abstracts, covering the journal literature of the social sciences. It indexes more than 1,725 journals spanning 50 disciplines, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 3,300 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals. It "provides access to current information and retrospective data from 1956 forward."

    A search in this database for Microfinance produced over 100 references, from a wide variety of sources.

    Web Resources:

    Unlike library databases, Web resources are available wherever you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. When using web resources, be sure to evaluate the credibility of these resources. For a subject index to web resources, see Business Resources on the Web on the Foster Business Library homepage.

    General:

  • Wikipedia:   This free online user-created and maintained encyclopedia can be a good starting point for an orientation to a topic. See their informative entries for Microfinance and Microcredit.

    Agencies and Organizations:

  • ACCION International:   This organization is a nonprofit that for over forty years has fought poverty by microlending, billing itself as one of the world's leading microfinance organizations. See their Microfinance Resources.

  • ACDI/VOCA:   This nonprofit organization, in existance for over thirty years, promotes a broad-based economic growth and the development of civil society in emerging democracies and developing countries. Among its many programs is microlending. See the results of a site search for the term Microfinance.

  • CALMEADOW:   "CALMEADOW is a registered Canadian not-for-profit charity with over fifteen years of experience in microfinance. Based in Toronto, CALMEADOW focuses its efforts on mobilizing and managing capital for direct investment in developing microfinance institutions. CALMEADOW has participated in funding, advising, investing and operating a number of micro credit and microfinance initiatives in Canada, Latin American and Africa."

  • The Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest:   "The Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP) is a consortium of 29 bilateral and multilateral donor agencies who support microfinance. Our mission is to improve the capacity of microfinance institutions to deliver flexible, high-quality financial services to the very poor on a sustainable basis. CGAP serves microfinance institutions, donors and the microfinance industry through the development of technical tools and services, the de-livery of training, strategic advice and technical assistance, and action research on innovations." See their Publications, among them some on microfinance topics.

  • Catholic Relief Services:   Catholic Relief Services is the official overseas relief and development agency of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, working in over 80 countries to alleviate poverty, hunger and suffering...with more than 90% of all support going to direct service programs." See their Microfinance site.

  • Centre for Micro Finance:   This India-based center performs research on microfinance. See their Publications and Map of Microfinance in India.

  • FINCA International:   FINCA is the Foundation for International Community Assistance and "has been helping families to create their own solutions to poverty since 1984." "A provider of financial services to low-income families, FINCA offer small loans and a savings program to those turned down by traditional banks." "FINCA invented the Village Banking method of credit delivery, now used by more than 80 other organizations worldwide … on five continents in more diverse cultures than any other microcredit provider." See their About Microfinance page.

  • The Global Development Research Center:   This center bills itself as "a virtual organization that carries out initiatives in education, research and practices, in the spheres of environment, urban, community and information, and at scales that are effective." One of its themes is Microfinance, with a virtual library on this topic.

  • GlobalGiving:   "GlobalGiving was founded by two former World Bank executives who decided to use the Internet to create a highly efficient marketplace. The GlobalGiving platform enables more funding to reach projects throughout the globe, and, at the same time, provides a more transparent, engaging way for donors to give." See microfinance projects under Economic Development.

  • GlobeFunder:   A for-profit private firm, GlobeFunder claims it "is the world's global lending and investment community marketplace uniting investors, borrowers, microfinance institutions and friends."

  • Government Innovators Network:   "The Government Innovators Network was developed at the Roy and Lila Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The Ash Institute fosters excellence in government around the world in order to generate and strengthen democracy. Through its research, publications, curriculum support, and Global Network, the Ash Institute explores critical issues in democratic practice and effective governance." See their website on Microfinance.

  • The Grameen Bank:   "The origin of Grameen Bank can be traced back to 1976 when Professor Muhammad Yunus, Head of the Rural Economics Program at the University of Chittagong, launched an action research project to examine the possibility of designing a credit delivery system to provide banking services targeted at the rural poor." "Today Grameen Bank is owned by the rural poor whom it serves. Borrowers of the Bank own 90% of its shares, while the remaining 10% is owned by the government." "As of May, 2006, it has 6.83 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom are women. With 2283 branches, GB provides services in 73,609 villages, covering more than 88 percent of the total villages in Bangladesh. "

  • The Grameen Foundation:   The "Grameen Foundation's mission is to empower the world's poorest people to lift themselves out of poverty with dignity through access to financial services and to information." See their Resource Center.

  • The Inter-American Development Bank:   "The Inter-American Development Bank, the oldest and largest regional multilateral development institution, was established in December of 1959 to help accelerate economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean." Since 1990, the bank has financed over 470 microenterprise operations for a total of over $450 million. See more about the bank's Microenterprise program.

  • Katalysis Partnership:   Katalysis Partnership was founded in 1984 as a pioneering microcredit agency, nurturing self-help enterprises in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. See Katalysis Program Publications for studies of microcredit in Central America, microcredit regulations in those countries, etc.

  • Kiva:   Kiva provides individuals with the ability to participate in the microfinance arena by partnering with microfinance institutions around the world. Instead of providing donations, individuals can make loans to Kiva, which in turn makes loans to the poor. "Kiva.org is the only not-for-profit peer-to-peer lender. It connects lenders in 30 developed markets with low-income entrepreneurs in 11 developing countries who need loans for their small businesses." See their How It Works.

  • The Microcredit Summit Campaign:   The Microcredit Summit Campaign provides information on microcredit summit conferences and their papers from a variety of regions and venues. See their Best Practices area.

  • The Microfinance Gateway:   "The Microfinance Gateway is a collaboration between CGAP (the Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest) and ELDIS, a leading organization in on-line information gateways (based at the Institute of Development Studies, U.K.). It is a forum for MFI practitioners, NGOs, Donors, and others to learn about microfinance topics and to share their knowledge."

  • UNCDF Microfinance:   This office, part of the United Nations Capital Development Fund, was established in 1999 to "facilitate coordination between the different microfinance initiatives at the United Nations." Most of this office's interventions have been in rural Africa. See their Basic Facts About Microfinance, and Publications.

  • The World Bank:   The World Bank is a good source for information about international development as well as about the 100 developing countries with which it works. See their About Microfinance.

    Foster Business Library Books:

    The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of over 70,000 books on all business topics. To search for materials on all three campuses of the University of Washington, go to the UW Libraries Catalog, in the upper left corner of the Foster Business Library homepage. Search by keyword, title, author, series, etc.

    To limit the results of your search just to materials in the Foster Business Library collection, use the Modify or Limit options at the top of the search results and change the library location to Foster Business Library. Availablity is indicated on the right of each online catalog record. First, note in which collection, within Foster, your materials are in, since the library has ten different Collections, each in a different location and often with differing arrangements. "Available" indicates that the book should be on the shelves under that call number and available for you to check out. "Due" and a date indicates that the book is already checked out to someone and is due back on the date indicated; you can have the "Request/Place Hold" feature to recall the book for your use.

    If the material you want is not in the collections of the University of Washington, you can use the "Search Summit" feature to repeat your search in the combined holdings of over thirty cooperating libraries in Washington and Oregon. Use the "Request This Item" feature in Summit to have books in those library sent here to Foster for you to check out.

    The Foster general stacks collection is located south of the main part of the Foster Business Library, through the two pass-throughs into the basement of Balmer. The arrangement is by call number, from A (at the east end, near the Copy Center) to Z (at the far west end).

    A keyword search for Microfinance produced over 170 records in the UW Libraries, but just three records in the Foster Business Library:

    Because this topic falls in the field of economics, rather than business, there are more books on this topic in the Suzzallo/Allen Library, where most of the economics material on campus is housed. Examples include:

    Foster Business Library Articles:

    Articles in academic journals, magazines, trade periodicals, and newspapers are one of the best sources for any kind of research. While the Foster Business Library offers a large periodicals print collection, comprising over 800 titles, articles are most easily accessed online, 24/7, in such fulltext article databases as EBSCO Business Source Premier, Factiva, LexisNexis Academic, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest Databases. These article databases are available in the library or from off-campus, and provide access to over 10,000 periodicals and millions of articles.

    Library access to most ProQuest databases will terminate at the end of spring quarter 2008, except for ProQuest NewsStand, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Historical New York Times, and the Historical Wall Street Journal. For more about this change, see UW Libraries Providing New Databases. After this change, comprehensive article searches should be performed in EBSCO Business Source Premier, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest NewsStand. Also, after this change, links to the articles below will be broken.

    ProQuest Databases:

    This database--actually, a family of over two dozen databases--offers full text articles for over 10,000 publications, including scholarly journals, magazines, trade and industry periodicals, newspapers, and reports on a very wide range of topics. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box--or search for your topic in the Topic Guide.

    Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article.

    A subject search for SUB(Microfinance) produced over 290 articles, including over seventy articles in scholarly journals, over seventy magazine articles, over fifty articles in trade and industry periodicals, and over a hundred newspaper articles. A search for PER(Yunus, Muhammad) produced over three hundred articles.

    Searches can be narrowed by combining subjects, such as:

    • SUB(Microfinance) and SUB(Developing countries--LDCs)   (over fifty articles)
    • SUB(Microfinance) and SUB(LDCs)   (over fifty articles)
    • SUB(Microfinance) and SUB(Studies)   (over thirty articles)
    • SUB(Microfinance) and SUB(Statistical analysis)   (five articles)
    • SUB(Microfinance) and SUB(Economic impact)   (five articles)

    Examples of articles, from the searches above, include:

    See also the special issue on Microfinance in the Economist magazine issue of November 5, 2005:

    Help:

    21 December 2006; updated 16 May 2007.   Peter Stevens, Business Librarian, stevens@u.washington.edu