Brac\\\'s Abed bags World Food Prize

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Brac's founder and chairperson, has been named the winner of the 41st annual World Food Prize.
Sir Abed has been recognised for his outstanding contribution to enhancing the world's production and distribution of food to those most in need.
Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, announced this year's winner at a ceremony at the US State Department in Washington, DC.
The Prize, which includes an award of US$250,000, has been referred to as the Nobel prize for food and agriculture.
"Being selected to receive the 2015 World Food Prize is a great honour," said Sir Abed in a statement. "I thank the Foundation for its recognition of the work of Brac, which I have had the privilege to lead over the last 43 years."
"The real heroes in our story are the poor themselves and, in particular, women struggling with poverty. In situations of extreme poverty, it is usually the women in the family who have to make do with scarce resources. When we saw this at Brac, we realised that women needed to be the agents of change in our development effort."
Ambassador Kenneth Quinn said, "At a time when the world confronts the great challenge of feeding over nine billion people, Sir Fazle Abed and Brac, the organisation he founded and leads, have created the preeminent model being followed around the globe on how to educate girls, empower women and lift whole generations out of poverty.  For this monumental achievement, Sir Fazle truly deserves recognition as the 2015 World Food Prize Laureate."
Brac's agriculture and food security programmes are part of a larger set of poverty eradication interventions working in 11 countries, empowering the poor, especially women and girls, using tools such as microfinance, education, health care, legal services, community empowerment, social enterprises, and a full-fledged university, Brac University, in Dhaka.