Episode 2: From Economist to Women's Champion – Roshaneh Zafar's Vision for Financial Inclusion
Discover the podcast: Episode 2
Welcome to our podcast series
The Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation continues its podcast series that brings you transformative stories of game-changing leaders from the Grameen family who are reshaping the landscape of inclusive finance and social business across the globe. In this second episode, we sit down with Roshaneh Zafar, founder and CEO of the KASHF Foundation, to explore her remarkable 30-year journey from economist to visionary leader in women's financial empowerment.
What you'll discover
Roshaneh Zafar shares how KASHF Foundation has evolved from a bold vision inspired by Professor Muhammad Yunus into one of leading microfinance institutions in Pakistan, reaching nearly 18 million individuals. Discover how listening to women's needs led to the creation of innovative, integrated financial solutions from microcredit to micro-insurance, and micro-pensions—all guided by a powerful commitment to gender equity and women's agency.
Key Highlights
• The power of a mentor's belief : How Professor Muhammad Yunus's confidence and guidance transformed a young economist's career
• Breaking down barriers : Understanding the multi-layered obstacles women face—from birth through entrepreneurship—and how KASHF Foundation systematically addresses them through integrated services
• From credit to transformation : The evolution from micro loans to comprehensive financial services including micro-insurance tailored to specific trades and innovative micro-pension products that enable long-term planning
• Holistic financial inclusion : How understanding women's multitasking realities led to designing products that address their interconnected financial needs—business, family, health, and future security
• Pioneering financial innovation : KASHF's groundbreaking achievements, including Pakistan's first gender bond and South Asia's first gender Sukuk (Islamic bond), bringing capital markets to women entrepreneurs
• The value of partnerships : How strategic collaborations with investors, insurance companies, and organizations sharing core values have been essential to scaling impact
Why this matters
In a world where poverty has a distinctly feminine face, Roshaneh Zafar's approach shows how strategic innovation, rooted in understanding women's real needs and challenges, can scale transformative impact and inspire a global movement.
This episode is particularly timely as the Grameen family strengthens collaboration to amplify collective impact on women's empowerment and financial inclusion.
Perfect for
Impact investors, social entrepreneurs, development professionals, policymakers, nonprofit leaders, women's rights advocates, and anyone passionate about creating meaningful change through finance, business, and gender equity.
Key quote
"This is not a transaction. This is about transformation. Be value-driven, understand the impact you want to create, and build your strategy from there". – Roshaneh Zafar
Listen now and be inspired by a leader who truly makes a difference.
" A Journey for Change in Inclusive Finance and Social Business " – Where impact meets innovation.
Subscribe to our podcast series to stay updated on upcoming episodes featuring other transformative leaders from the Grameen family who are driving change across continents and sectors.
Discover the podcast via this link
French transcript
English transcript
Developing agroecological practices for small producers in Benin
Grameen Family Meeting Report
Podcast: A Journey with Changemakers in Inclusive Finance and Social Entrepreneurship #2
Episode 2: From Economist to Women's Champion – Roshaneh Zafar's Vision for Financial Inclusion
Discover the podcast: Episode 2
Welcome to our podcast series
The Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation continues its podcast series that brings you transformative stories of game-changing leaders from the Grameen family who are reshaping the landscape of inclusive finance and social business across the globe. In this second episode, we sit down with Roshaneh Zafar, founder and CEO of the KASHF Foundation, to explore her remarkable 30-year journey from economist to visionary leader in women's financial empowerment.
What you'll discover
Roshaneh Zafar shares how KASHF Foundation has evolved from a bold vision inspired by Professor Muhammad Yunus into one of leading microfinance institutions in Pakistan, reaching nearly 18 million individuals. Discover how listening to women's needs led to the creation of innovative, integrated financial solutions from microcredit to micro-insurance, and micro-pensions—all guided by a powerful commitment to gender equity and women's agency.
Key Highlights
• The power of a mentor's belief : How Professor Muhammad Yunus's confidence and guidance transformed a young economist's career
• Breaking down barriers : Understanding the multi-layered obstacles women face—from birth through entrepreneurship—and how KASHF Foundation systematically addresses them through integrated services
• From credit to transformation : The evolution from micro loans to comprehensive financial services including micro-insurance tailored to specific trades and innovative micro-pension products that enable long-term planning
• Holistic financial inclusion : How understanding women's multitasking realities led to designing products that address their interconnected financial needs—business, family, health, and future security
• Pioneering financial innovation : KASHF's groundbreaking achievements, including Pakistan's first gender bond and South Asia's first gender Sukuk (Islamic bond), bringing capital markets to women entrepreneurs
• The value of partnerships : How strategic collaborations with investors, insurance companies, and organizations sharing core values have been essential to scaling impact
Why this matters
In a world where poverty has a distinctly feminine face, Roshaneh Zafar's approach shows how strategic innovation, rooted in understanding women's real needs and challenges, can scale transformative impact and inspire a global movement.
This episode is particularly timely as the Grameen family strengthens collaboration to amplify collective impact on women's empowerment and financial inclusion.
Perfect for
Impact investors, social entrepreneurs, development professionals, policymakers, nonprofit leaders, women's rights advocates, and anyone passionate about creating meaningful change through finance, business, and gender equity.
Key quote
"This is not a transaction. This is about transformation. Be value-driven, understand the impact you want to create, and build your strategy from there". – Roshaneh Zafar
Listen now and be inspired by a leader who truly makes a difference.
" A Journey for Change in Inclusive Finance and Social Business " – Where impact meets innovation.
Subscribe to our podcast series to stay updated on upcoming episodes featuring other transformative leaders from the Grameen family who are driving change across continents and sectors.
Discover the podcast via this link
French transcript
English transcript
Episode 2: From Economist to Women's Champion – Roshaneh Zafar's Vision for Financial Inclusion
Mission to the Philippines: Meeting with stakeholders in climate change and sustainable agriculture
Ghuilem Vincent, Philippines, February 2026
In February 2026, Camille Huret of Foster Impact Advisory and Guilhem Vincent of the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation conducted a two-week mission to the Philippines to meet with existing partners and new prospects of the Foundation, and also as part of the Women Empowerment for Climate Fund (WEC).
The Philippines, facing an intensification of extreme weather events, naturally fit into the strategy of both institutions, which aim to strengthen the adaptation of rural communities to climate change. This mission allowed us to discover a diverse range of actors involved in several key sectors: from the inclusive finance to sustainable agriculture, passing through the cold chain in the fishing industry.
The team notably met Kennemer Foods International, a partner of FGCA since 2022, which works to promote sustainable agriculture in Mindanao, particularly through the cocoa and banana value chains. They also met Agronomika Finance Corporation, an entity of the Kennemer group, having benefited from a SSNUP Technical Assistance Program, aiming to strengthen its capacity to offer financial services to rural women. Agronomika enabled Camille and Guilhem to collect the testimonials of 35 women on the impacts of climate change in their communities, as well as on the local solutions being considered. The vast majority of these people expressed needs for solar water pump as well as climate resilience work for their home and their business.
While these testimonials are not representative on a large scale, they will provide valuable insights to inform the WEC's strategy and guide the development of its investment pipeline. Corresponding product offerings could be developed, such as index-linked loans coupled with targeted technical assistance.
Ghuilem Vincent, Philippines, February 2026
This mission also provided an opportunity to meet other field partners such as the NGO Acted.
The operational launch of the WEC, which supports women's empowerment facing climate change in emerging countries through debt financing for microfinance institutions and SMEs, is planned for the second half of 2026.
This mission illustrates ongoing commitment from FGCA and WEC for a more resilient and sustainable future.
Four Years of Support for Inclusive Insurance
Four Years of Support for Inclusive Insurance
How an ambitious program transformed the approach to microinsurance at twelve microfinance institutions.
Every year, millions of smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia see their crops devastated by natural disasters. A quarter of adults in low- and middle-income countries have already been affected by such a disaster. For farming households, this reality is not abstract: the loss of income often means the loss of a future.
Faced with this emergency, how can we protect the most vulnerable? How can we transform microfinance into a shield against climate unpredictability?
An ambitious program: four years to lay the foundations
Between 2021 and 2025, a program funded by Proparco and implemented by the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation and the ILO supported twelve microfinance institutions in Africa and Asia to develop microinsurance solutions adapted to populations vulnerable to climate shocks.
The approach adopted was progressive and structured: raising awareness among teams, providing in-depth technical support, and then offering intensive assistance with the integration of expertise within the institutions. The results speak for themselves: insurance departments created, agricultural products tested, teams trained, and strategic partnerships established.
Despite these advances, the path to large-scale inclusive insurance remains fraught with obstacles:
These four years have laid solid foundations. They have demonstrated that, with the right support, microfinance institutions can become credible players in inclusive insurance.
But the real question now is: how do we move from experimentation to scaling up?
Faced with accelerating climate change, inclusive insurance must no longer be a pilot project. It must become a structuring pillar of agricultural and financial resilience. This requires long-term commitments, patient investments, and the political will to transform these foundations into sustainable markets.
The question is no longer whether we should invest in inclusive insurance. It is: how do we structure sustainable commitments to make them a reality for millions of small farmers?
Read the full article via this link.
Md. Ashraful Hassan: New Vice President of the Foundation
Grameen Family, Paris, February 11, 2026
Md. Ashraful Hassan, Chairman of the Grameen Group, has just been elected to board of directors of the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation and takes over the Vice-Presidency of the Foundation. This appointment recognizes his long-standing commitment towards our foundation's mission of financial inclusion and social empowerment.
With more than 40 years of experience professional With Grameen, his professional journey demonstrates a deep understanding of the social enterprise ecosystem of the Grameen Group.
As a board member of over 30 companies, Md. Ashraful Hassan possesses extensive expertise spanning telecommunications, healthcare, education, renewable energy, financial inclusion, and rural development. He ensures that all initiatives remain firmly aligned with Grameen's social enterprise principles and shared mission. Zero poverty, Zero unemployment and Zero Net Carbon Emissions.
Listen to his story in our podcast
Discover how Md. Ashraful Hassan guided the evolution of the Grameen Group, transforming Professor Muhammad Yunus's pioneering microfinance initiative in 1976 into a comprehensive ecosystem of 31 social enterprises. In this podcast, he shares how listening to the needs of borrowers led to innovative solutions covering health, renewable energy and digital financial services, all guided by the vision of the Three Zeros.
Listen to the podcast: Episode 1: From Engineer to Social Leader – Md. Ashraful Hassan's Vision for the Grameen Group
His election to the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation strengthens the link between the two founding organizations of the Foundation and opens of new perspectives to amplify the collective impact in favor of financial inclusion and the empowerment of the most vulnerable populations around the world, particularly women.
Episode 1: A journey with changemakers in inclusive finance and social entrepreneurship
Podcast: A Journey with Changemakers in Inclusive Finance and Social Entrepreneurship #1
Episode 1: From Engineer to Social Leader – Md. Ashraful Hassan's Vision for the Grameen Group
Discover the podcast: Episode 1
Welcome to our new podcast series
The Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation is thrilled to launch an exciting new podcast series that brings you transformative stories of game-changing leaders from the Grameen family which are reshaping the landscape of inclusive finance and social enterprise worldwide. In this inaugural episode, we meet Md. Ashraful Hassan, President of the Grameen Group, to explore his remarkable 40-year journey from engineer to visionary social leader.
What you'll discover
Md. Ashraful Hassan shares how the Grameen Group has evolved from Professor Muhammad Yunus's pioneering microfinance initiative in 1976 into a comprehensive ecosystem of 31 social enterprises tackling poverty, unemployment, and climate change. Find out how listening to the needs of borrowers led to the creation of innovative solutions covering health, renewable energy and digital financial services — all guided by the powerful vision of Three Zeros: Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, Zero Net Carbon Emissions.
Key Highlights
Why this matters
In a world facing unprecedented challenges, Md. Ashraful Hassan's approach demonstrates that inclusive finance and social enterprise are much more than tools for poverty reduction. They are catalysts for systemic change which tackle interconnected global problems. His vision shows how strategic innovation, rooted in the needs of communities, can amplify transformative impact and inspire a global movement.
This episode is particularly timely as the Grameen family reunites to strengthen their collaboration and amplify their collective impact.
Perfect for
Impact investors, social entrepreneurs, development professionals, policymakers, nonprofit leaders, and anyone passionate about creating meaningful change through finance and business.
Listen now and be inspired by a leader who truly makes a difference.
" A Journey for Change in Inclusive Finance and Social Business " Where impact meets innovation.
Subscribe to stay updated on upcoming episodes featuring other transformative leaders from the Grameen family who are driving change across continents and sectors.
French transcript
English transcript