After graduating from the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, Roshaneh Zafar studied development economics at Yale University and upon returning to Pakistan she worked for the World Bank in Islamabad in the early 90s. In 1996, inspired by Bangladesh's Grameen Bank and its founder Muhammad Yunus, she established Pakistan's first specialised microfinance organisation, the Kashf Foundation, in Lahore. ] In 2007, Roshaneh Zafar was awarded the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, one of Pakistan's highest civilian awards, by then-president Pervez Musharraf in recognition of her work in the field of development and women's empowerment.That same year, Zafar also won the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. Zafar was also awarded an honorary PHD from the University of Antwerp, Belgium in 2023 for her work in the field of women’s economy empowerment.
