A man with vision and mission

A birthday was observed on April 27 silently. It was of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed - the founder chairperson of the world's largest NGO called Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC).   Helen Keller was reported to have once said, "The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but no vision."  Most of us perhaps would represent the category coined by Helen Keller but there are a few exceptions too. Sir Fazle Hasan Abed is one such exception as he was born with both sight and vision. This hypothesis has amply been tested by the implementation of the innovative pro-poor projects initiated by him. His ideas have lifted millions out of poverty both within and outside the country.  But it is not merely microcredit (BRAC could reach only 6-7 per cent of rural households with such credit); it is credit plus which dominates BRAC's agenda of transforming life and livelihoods of the poor.

Women and human resource development seem to be the main motto of BRAC. It is thus no wonder that under his dynamic leadership, BRAC has emerged as the brand of development for the poor all over the world.  

  Beyond the boundary of Bangladesh, Fazle Hasan Abed is being revered with respect and repute. While presenting the Human Development Prize of the UNDP to Fazle Hasan Abed in 2004, the chief of the UN development organisation was reported to have said: "We first gave this prize to the President of Brazil for carrying out huge human development activities in the country.  When evaluating the activities of the Presidents and Prime Ministers of different countries for awarding the prize second time, we noticed that, compared to them, more important works were done by Fazle Hasan Abed of BRAC. Therefore, we decided to award the prize to a 'President of the People' rather than President of a country".  

  Born in a remote village of Habiganj in 1936, Fazle Hasan Abed joined as a high-ranking professional in a multinational corporation after graduating from the university. What led him most afterwards is not the lucrative job but the painful path of serving the suffering humanity. It all started with relief works for the people in 1970 when the devastating cyclone and tidal surge swept over the coastal belt.  His active involvement in the liberation war opened up a new horizon to serve the poor people. He left the lucrative job in the immediate post- independence period to establish BRAC that helped relief and rehabilitation of the people in Shalla upazila of Sunamganj. He could stop there but soon he realised that relief can hardly be a recipe for human advancement unless poor people could be imbibed with the spirit of self-reliance. It was a long and arduous journey few on earth would like to take up.

A visit to rural areas tends to discover BRAC's deliveries in many dimensions. For example, the institution provides modern guest houses in a rural setting named BRAC Learning Centre (BLC). The safe and secured dormitories with modern training facilities are used mainly for skill development and training - landscape covered with orchards, nurseries and ponds. A disciplined and efficient team of management profitably runs these year-long occupied centres that are no worse than 3-star hotels in towns. Into the villages, one would find farmers using BRAC's hybrid seeds or lining up for Borgachashi (share-cropping) loan, poor households selling milk to the dairy project, health workers running hither and thither with extension services for mother and children. The children from the poorest of the poor households are attending BRAC schools (even on boats in haor areas) and they are doing very well in public examinations. In some places, adolescent girls are trained in karat to physically protect them.

The most important contribution that BRAC has made is in the area of women's emancipation. The list of activities is long and space would not allow dwelling on each. Suffice it to say however that Fazle Hasan Abed and his BRAC are competently pursuing the objectives enshrined in our spirit of the liberation war and the Constitution.  BRAC is now the world's largest development organisation serving humanity in 11 countries.

  Sir Fazle Hasan Abed has been honoured with numerous national and international awards for his achievements in leading BRAC. We can mention some of  them drawing upon different sources and at times paraphrased: the Trust Women Hero Award (2014), Spanish Order of Civil Merit (2014), Leo Tolstoy International Gold Medal (2014), CEU Open Society Prize (2013), Inaugural WISE Prize for Education (2011), Entrepreneur for the World Award (2009), David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award (2008), Inaugural Clinton Global Citizen Award (2007), Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership (2007), Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation (PKSF) Award for lifetime achievement in social development and poverty alleviation (2007), UNDP Mahbub-ul Haq Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Development (2004), Gates Award for Global Health (2004), Gleitsman Foundation International Activist Award (2003), Schwab Foundation's Social Entrepreneurship Award (2003), Olof Palme Prize (2001), InterAction Humanitarian Award (1998) and Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership (1980).

  Abed was also recognised by Ashoka as one of the 'global greats' and is a founding member of its prestigious Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2009, he was appointed Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George (KCMG) by the British Crown in recognition of his services to reducing poverty in Bangladesh and internationally. He was a member of the Group of Eminent Persons appointed by the UN Secretary-General in 2010 to advise on support for the Least Developed Countries. In 2014, he was named in Fortune Magazine's List of the World's 50 Greatest Leaders.

He received many honorary degrees, including from Yale University (2007), Columbia University (2008), the University of Oxford (2009) and Princeton University (2014).

  Sir Fazle Hasan Abed - a man with vision and mission -  has reached  80 and is still active in the field of social development within and outside the country.

The writer is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University.

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