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Although many economic, social, and environmental crises have occurred in the past, the recent novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease is believed to have generated the most severe impact worldwide. Motivated by the lack of data from the global microfinance sector with respect to COVID-19, we have attempted to understand the effect of the pandemic on the microfinance industries through the lens of the 2007–2009 Global Financial Crisis (GFC). In so doing, global data of 2,995 microfinance institutions (MFIs) from 2000 to 2018 were analyzed, highlighting the effect of the GFC on the outreach and financial objectives of MFIs. Our assessment revealed that the GFC mostly had a negative impact on the dual goals of MFIs. Most importantly, the GFC triggered the transformation of the legal status of MFIs from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to other types (e.g., non-bank financial institutions). Similar outcomes are expected in the aftermath of the COVID-19 in the microfinance industries.

Numerous studies in the microfinance context have been observed to employ the data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique for the estimation of efficiency and/or productivity at the organizational level. This chapter aims to synthesize the existing DEA literature in the microfinance context to provide an overview of the methodological development over the past two decades and identify future research directions. To this end, literature data spanning the period 2006–2022 have been gathered from the Scopus database, and after filtering them based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 70 research articles relevant to this topic were considered for the study. With respect to methodological development, although most of the studies relied on the classical DEA, a recent trend revealed that studies are also employing various forms of network DEA (NDEA) techniques that integrate complex and multiple stages of the production process to help capture the diverse objectives of microfinance institutions. Furthermore, most studies utilize either regional or global data in their analysis of efficiency/productivity, with only a few exceptions. Lastly, bibliometric processing software (e.g., VOSViewer) is utilized for the identification of influential authors, institutions, networking, and countries. The study identifies important prospects for future research.