Assignment 2 – GIS Project Ideas
Steve Monroe
Mapping Microfinance Institutions in Cambodia
Summary
With over two hundred million borrowers, microfinance has
revolutionized the public discourse on international development. While its
impact on poverty alleviation remains debatable, microfinance’s scope and
growth is not. Understanding the geographic characteristics of Microfinance
Institutions (MFIs) can help identify trends, strengths and weaknesses in the
global push to expand financial services to the marginalized. This project hopes
to assess the determinants of MFIs’ locations in Cambodia. Using Geographic
Information System (GIS) software, this research will answer two questions:
1. What geographic, demographic and institutional characteristics account
for MFIs’ distribution?
Mapping the distribution of MFIs in relation to geographic poverty indicators
will help answer whether MFIs are actually reaching the marginalized. Graphing
MFIs’ locations with regards to geographic (mountains, desert) and institutional
(electrical grids, police stations) obstacles will highlight MFIs’ operational costs.
Together, this analysis can help determine how MFIs balance their social mission
of financing the marginalized with the costs of financing the marginalized. One
could also form an “MFI locator” index that maps the ideal location for MFI
outposts based on a criterion of demographic, geographic and institutional
factors.
2. How does the distribution of non-profit MFIs differ from for-profit MFIs
and banks?
Graphing the locational differences between for-profit and non-profit MFIs will
highlight each method’s size and proximity to the marginalized. It could also
inform how different geographic, institutional and demographic factors shape
the prevalence of each type of MFI. Assessing the geographic determinants of forprofit and non-profit MFIs can help policymakers understand how and where
these competing institutions spread.
References:
While there is a dearth of peer reviewed, much less academic research that uses
GIS to analyze MFIs, these four sources helped me phrase my research interests.
1. Microfinance Mapping Project – Uganda
“Mapping Microfinance,” 2013.
http://ds.haverford.edu/wp/mappingmicrofinance/.
“Microfinance Mapping Project – Uganda,” a group report from students at
Haverford college, opened my eyes to the possibility of using GIS to research
MFIs. This project mapped MFI branch locations in Uganda in relation to
population, poverty density and water coverage. The group was able to find the
geographic coordinates of each MFI branch from Uganda’s microfinance
association. This gives me hope that microfinance associations from other
developing countries also keep this data. I will try to expand beyond this group’s
focus on geographic and demographic variables to include institutional variables
as well.
2. The Use of Geographic Information System (GIS) MAPPING The Potential
for SMEs Based On Spatial (Case Study in The City of Depok, West Java).
Nuryanto, Guyub. “The Use of Geographic Information System (GIS) Mapping The
Potential for SMEs Based On Spatial (Case Study in the City of Depok,
West Java),” n.d.
This conference proposal lays the framework for creating a spatial index of
economic and social factors that would map the most profitable areas for SMEs
in the city of Depok, West Java. As this is a research proposal, the authors’ index
is still very vague. I would like to use my understanding of microfinance to
produce a similar index that would map the best location for MFI outposts in
Cambodia.
3. The Spatial Pattern of Commercial Banks in Kogi State of Nigeria. January
2008.
Ifatimehin, Orogun, and Alabi. “The Spatial Pattern of Commercial Banks in Kogi
State of Nigeria” (January 2008).
This study explores the geographic distribution of commercial banks in the Kogi
State of Nigeria. Using GIS techniques for spatial analysis, it argues that
commercial banks in Kogi have a tendency to cluster around government-run
industries. The authors’ use of GIS maps effectively portrays this clustering.
Tangentially, “Spatial Distribution of Commercial Banks in Ilorin Metropolis,
Kwara State, Nigeria” is another academic article that maps and regresses banks’
proximity to the Ilorin metropolis’ commercial district.
4. Policies and Impact: An Analysis of Village-Level Microfinance Institutions
Kaboski, Joseph, and Townsend, Robert. “Policies and Impact: An Analysis of
Village-Level Microfinance Institutions.” The Journal of the European
Economic Association 3, no. 1 (March 2005): 1 – 50.
“Policies and Impact” assesses the impact of MFI institutions on poverty
alleviation in northern Thailand. Though GIS is one of many tools the authors use
to measure the impact of MFIs, I was greatly impressed by their use of the
software to create a probability map of financial access locations. They employed
these locations as the control group for their regression. This level of
econometric and GIS expertise is beyond my expertise. However, the authors’
ability to map probable “financial inclusion” locations indicates that an index can
be made to map ideal locations for MFIs.
Data
I chose Cambodia for this project for two reasons. First, judging by our upcoming
Cambodia assignment, and the plethora of aid agencies operating there, I sense it
has a lot of GIS and mapping data. The Cambodian Microfinance Association
webpage also has a large archive of annual reports and outside research.
Secondly, having worked for a Cambodian MFI last summer, I hope to use my
summer experience and reach out to my employers to come up with an accurate
MFI locator index.