Biography

Group: 

SWWB Board

Role: 

SWWB Board Member

Ms. Roshaneh Zafar is the Founder and President of Kashf Foundation which is based in Pakistan. The organization has grown from a mere 15 female clients in 1996 to 301,000 clients today. It is one of the fastest growing MFIs in the country, it is the first one to achieve financial self sufficiency and continues to have a portfolio at risk of less than 0.8%. Kashf was also the first NGO-MFI to broaden the scope of microfinance by introducing insurance services and has recently started pilot research for introducing individual lending in order to target the “missing middle” in the microfinance market. In 2002, Kashf Foundation was awarded the Microfinance Excellence Award by the Grameen Foundation-USA for its groundbreaking innovations in the field of microfinance in Pakistan, while in 2005 it won the AGFUND International Prize for Microcredit 2005 out of 98 countries. Kashf and Ms Roshaneh Zafar was also awarded the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in March 2007. Kashf Foundation has been ranked 34 out of the top 50 MFIs by Forbes.

Ms. Zafar founded the Kashf Foundation – the first specialized microfinance organization in Pakistan – in 1996 after a chance meeting with Professor Muhammd Yunus of the Grameen Bank. Prior to this she worked with the World Bank in Islamabad in the Water and Sanitation department for several years. Ms. Zafar was one of the first Ashoka Fellows in Pakistan and was recently selected as a Social Entrepreneur by the Schwab Foundation. Ms Zafar has also been awarded the Tamghai Imtiaz, one of Pakistan’s highest civilian awards, by the President of Pakistan for her work in the field of development and women’s empowerment. She represented the Social Entrepreneurs at the World Economic Forum in January 2004 and spoke at the Opening Plenary of the WEF along with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, President Obasanjo of Nigeria, Carly Fiorina of Hewlett Packard and Mr Wolfenson of the World Bank, responding to the theme Partnering for Security and Prosperity. She is also the founding member of the Pakistan Microfinance Network and is a member on the Board of several NGOs, including MISFA Ltd Afghanistan and is a member of the UN Advisory Group on Inclusive Financial Services. Ms. Zafar is a graduate of the Wharton Business School University of Pennsylvania in Finance and Economics. She also holds a Masters in International and Development Economics from Yale University.