Research & Analysis
Publication

Crisis Roadmap for Microfinance Institutions: COVID-19 and Beyond

This publication is also available in Spanish.

The COVID-19 pandemic is the latest in a series of crises that microfinance institutions (MFIs) around the world have faced in recent decades. This crisis response roadmap is designed to help MFIs navigate the COVID-19 health pandemic and its economic impact, and to provide guidance on recommended practices that are relevant today and for future crises. Drawing from the industry’s experiences with previous crises, this roadmap guides MFIs through a series of practical steps to build institutional resilience and includes checklists and milestones to help users measure their progress.

Crisis Roadmap Image

Related resources

Snapshots: MFIs During the COVID-19 Crisis
To help fill the void of publicly available data on how COVID-19 is impacting the microfinance sector, CGAP and Symbiotics have partnered to analyze data on the performance of the more than 300 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Symbiotics global portfolio.

Topic: Digital Innovation
Sub-topics: MFIs

Related Research

Publication

Gender-Intentional Credit Scoring

Evidence shows women often demonstrate higher loan repayment rates than men, suggesting they are lower-risk borrowers yet face higher barriers to loan approval. This guide introduces a gender-lens analytical framework for lenders to determine whether lending decisions and outcomes in their portfolios differ by gender and, if so, how.
Publication

Building Value in Microfinance Through Digitization: Lessons from Loan Automation Pilots

Digitization has brought both hope and frustration to the microfinance industry. To address this, we identified and tested five core principles for successful implementation. This focus note summarizes our experience, evaluates the validity of the five principles, and offers key lessons learned for other industry stakeholders to adopt and scale a similar approach.
Publication

Building Value in Microfinance Through Digitization: A Role for Funders

This note highlights the importance of funders in supporting the digital transformation of microfinance institutions (MFIs). The focus is on business intelligence and credit renewal automation to increase the success rate of MFI digitization. Funders play a crucial role in ensuring that MFIs continue to serve the most excluded and underserved customers in the future.