The chief adviser of the interim caretaker government of Bangladesh and pioneer of micro-credit cum social business programmes across the globe – Professor Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Micro-credit programmes offer an alternative strategy for socio-economic uplift of the marginalised poor by extending small loans for self-employment and income-generation.
The success of the micro-credit programmes in Bangladesh as well as the country’s image as a global trendsetter in this field is largely due to the outstanding successes of the founder of Grameen Bank Professor Muhammad Yunus. Known around the world as the “Banker of the Poor”, he has been responsible for a paradigm shift in prevailing economic and development theories by asserting that the poor are creditworthy. He is considered a revolutionary, whose pioneering ideas have equated capitalism with social responsibility, thereby transforming the very framework of worldwide efforts for poverty alleviation and rural development.
A dedicated visionary and a keen social entrepreneur for the cause of the poor and socially disadvantaged, Yunus has generated many innovative programs for reducing poverty. He had pioneered the concept of ‘Gram Sarkar’ (village government) in 1974 as a form of local government, which was adopted by the then Bangladesh authorities in 1980. In 1978, he received the President’s Award for ‘Tebhaga Khamar’ (three-share farming), an innovative system of cooperative farming in the countryside. He started his experiments to provide credit without collateral to the poor women of ‘Jobra’ village near Chittagong University in 1976, where he was serving as a professor of economics. This experiment became successful as a pioneering model for micro-credit programmes. The Grameen Bank project was then launched by Yunus with the backing of the then government. As it proved to be highly successful, the project was converted into a full-fledged autonomous entity called Grameen Bank in 1983 through a presidential ordinance, with Yunus as the founding Managing Director.
Unfortunately, he was unjustly removed from his position as managing director of Grameen Bank by then autocratic regime in March 2011 due to personal grudge of the then prime minister. However, as of June 2011, Grameen Bank was operational in 81,379 villages of 64 administrative districts of Bangladesh providing micro-loans through 2,569 branches to 8.37 million members, 96 per cent of whom were women. Loans disbursed by the bank up to June 2011 were US dollar 6.49 billion, with a recovery rate of almost 97 per cent. About 60 per cent of Grameen borrowers could graduate from poverty over the years.
Born in Chattogram on 28 June 1940, Yunus received PhD in Economics from the Vanderbilt University of USA in 1969 as a Fulbright scholar. He taught economics at Middle Tennessee State University for some time before returning to Chattogram. It was here that he started experimentations with micro-credit. At first some women would not even talk to him, clerics labelled him as an agent of the West bent on subverting Islam, and bankers were dismissive of his unorthodox ideas; but the Grameen (meaning ‘rural’) movement grew gradually and steadily and ultimately became a major force not only in Bangladesh, but on the global plane as well.
Today, micro-credit is a powerful anti-poverty tool that has demonstrated relevance for numerous national and international organisations engaged in empowering the subaltern poor by establishing micro-enterprises. Grameen-inspired credit-based micro-finance institutions spread to around 70 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas within 2011. By then, over 18.84 million poor families in Bangladesh could be brought under the micro-credit network through NGOs working alongside the Grameen Bank. In fact, the worldwide adoption of the Grameen Model represents a rare case of technology transfer from the South to the North – thereby reversing the more prevalent diffusion process in which the Western industrialised nations have been the innovator and the subaltern third-world the adopter.
Professor Yunus has other innovative ideas as well for the emancipation of the poor. For example, he has been an advocate of social entrepreneurship or social business, where Social-Consciousness-Driven (SCD) enterprises are run on a commercial basis keeping in mind the social priorities, such as equity and empowerment of the marginalised poor. By 2011, examples of social business in the Grameen family of organisations included Grameen Telecom (main shareholder of GrameenPhone), Grameen Shakti (working in the field of renewable energy), Grameen Software, Grameen Uddog (promoting handloom weavers), and Grameen Sahmogree (producing products like the famous Grameen Check fabrics).
In recognition of his accomplishments, Professor Yunus has received innumerable international awards from Asia, Europe, Africa, Pacific, North and South America. These included the Ramon Magsaysay Award (for community leadership, Manila, 1984), Aga Khan Award for Architecture (Geneva, 1989), World Food Prize (USA, 1994), Simon Bolivar Prize (UNESCO, 1996), Sydney Peace Prize (Australia, 1998), Indira Gandhi Prize for peace, disarmament and development (India, 1998), The Economist Award for social and economic innovation (London, 2004), Seoul Peace Prize (Korea, 2006), Award for UN South-South Cooperation (UN, 2007), Friend of Children Award: 2008 (Save the Children, Spain), Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book Prize (Portugal, 2009) for writing the book ‘Creating a World without Poverty’, Presidential Medal of Freedom (USA, 2009) – the highest US civilian honour, Congressional Gold Medal (USA, 2013) – the highest civilian honour awarded by the US Congress, Forbes 400 Lifetime Achievement Award for Social Entrepreneurship (USA, 2013), Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Global Entrepreneurship Award (Saudi Arabia, 2014), International Humanitarian Award (Pakistan, 2015), KISS Humanitarian Award (India, 2018), Global Women’s Leadership Award (Switzerland, 2019), Dr APJ Abul Kalam Memorial Award (India, 2020), Olympic Laurel (IOC, 2021) for collaborations with IOC on projects related to education and career transition of Olympians, and Champion for Global Change (UN Foundation, 2021). In Bangladesh, he received in the past the President’s Award (1978), Central Bank Award (1985), and the Independence Award (1987). He also served as Chairman of the Policy Advisory Group for the CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest), of the World Bank during 1995 - 2000.
In his hugely inspirational book A World of Three Zeros: The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment and Zero Net Carbon Emissions (2017), Muhammad Yunus has presented a fascinating vision for a future world that is devoid of poverty, unemployment and environmental degradation. By drawing upon his trailblazing microcredit initiatives, he advocated a transformative framework where businesses can become a force for social good through generation of innovative solutions for creating inclusive economies that prioritise human wellbeing, while simultaneously protecting the planet earth. With his treasure of experience and steadfast resolve for alleviating poverty, he invited the readers of the book to undertake an inspiring journey for creating a world where every human being has the opportunity to lead a life of dignity and fulfilment. Hopefully, this grand philosophy and spirit of human welfare will find adequate reflection in his work cum performance during the upcoming months as head of the country’s interim administration.
Dr Helal Uddin Ahmed is a retired Additional Secretary, former Editor of Bangladesh Quarterly, and ex-AGM of Grameen Trust.
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