[WSIS CS-Plenary] The Practical : Revolutionary

[AHM Bazlur Rahman]

The Practical : Revolutionary

As a man who started a bank to give out collateral-free loans to poor women, relying solely on their integrity, Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus has taught the world the power of trust. When you show faith in people, no matter how disadvantaged they are, they will live up to the respect they have been shown, this is what Grameen Bank has shown through the close to 100 percent recovery rate of loans to women borrowers who are also the Bank's shareholders. Now about 80 lakh families have benefited from micro lending. Grameen Bank and replicas based on the Grameen model are operating in every corner of the world from India to the US. But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what Professor Yunus has started. From projects to boost fisheries and agriculture to solar power, healthcare, pure drinking water to villagers at a nominal price, software development, telecommunications and even textiles, there are very few areas where the Grameen initiative has not reached and succeeded. It is an endless list of endeavours to bring people out of poverty and improve their wellbeing that will leave even the most stubborn sceptic a little breathless at the combination of ingenuity and empathy behind it all. 


"Professor Muhammad Yunus wanted to help a village but managed to change the world." - President Obama during the Freedom Prize award ceremony in Washington DC.

The notion of 'social business' is the most innovative model that Professor Yunus has been promoting in Bangladesh and all over the world. It is a viable business that may break even or even make profits but with the sole purpose of benefiting people; any profit will be ploughed back into the business to expand or improve it.

This is the leap forward that the world has been waiting for. His target is to motivate the young generation to develop an altruistic approach to entrepreneurship, starting with the children of Grameen borrowers who now own the bank. Apart from giving student loans for higher education, these young men and women are provided the funds to set up businesses that will eventually create jobs for other young people.


      Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. 
Despite harsh criticism and his recent political misadventure the success of Professor Yunus in developing new formulae to pull people out of various stages of poverty remains undeterred. It is a process he has started based on his belief that 'poverty in the world is an artificial creation' and to change that 'we have to redesign our institutions and policies, and there will be no people who will be suffering from poverty.'

Winner of countless international awards including the Nobel Peace Prize of 2007 and the most recent Freedom Prize handed over by US President Barak Obama, Professor Yunus's is an awe-inspiring story, one that brings tremendous strength and hope, not just for Bangladesh but the entire world.

In an exclusive conversation with The Daily Star's Editor and Publisher MAHFUZ ANAM and Magazine Editor AASHA MEHREEN AMIN, Professor Yunus elaborates on the thought process behind his innovative projects to bring the world's poor out of poverty.

You just came back from the US after receiving the Freedom Prize from President Obama. So how did your meeting with him go?
Prof. Muhammad Yunus (MY): When we shook hands he said 'you know my mother too use to do micro-credit'. I told him that I knew that very well as in 1995 at the Women's Summit in Beijing, she was supposed to be part of the panel along with Hilary (Clinton) and myself. But she could not make it as she was ill, later I heard that she had passed away. He also asked me how micro-credit was going and I said it was going well although there were some legal issues that needed to be sorted out.

He then asked 'how is it being spread'. I said that there was a confusion regarding micro-credit. Some are thinking that it is to make profit but I say that it is to make money for others, that is social business. I explained to him what it meant, that it was a business that will positively impact on the lives of people. Health care would be a good area for social business, I said knowing that this was something he was having difficulty with.

Later I told the First Lady that she should take up the cause of health care, but 'you should do it internationally' I said. At this time Nancy Brinker another recipient of the award came up to us. I had been talking to her before. Nancy, a doctor by profession, has dedicated herself to breast cancer research, her sister died of the disease. I told her that breast cancer was a major problem in our country many poor women in rural areas get breast cancer and do not even know about it and die because there is no early detection or awareness...Nancy said, 'let's do something and I would like to work with you'.


      The beginnings of the Grameen Dream. 
Then when I was talking to Michelle (Obama) she ran up to us and said 'we will work together'. I told Michelle that lack of proper healthcare for women was a major problem in Bangladesh. This is an issue you can take up. I pointed out to her that of the 16 awardees three were working in healthcare, two dedicated to cancer research and one provided healthcare to the homeless. So you can take this up and we can develop this as a social business.

You have met many world leaders, who has shown the most interest in Bangladesh?
MY: Queen Sophia for example, came five times to Bangladesh and is very interested in the country. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, was also very eager to see Grameen Bank and came with four cabinet ministers in his own plane in '95 or '96.

China has shown a lot of interest in Grameen Bank. How do you see this?
MY: In 2006 during the National Micro credit Conference in Beijing I was invited as the chief guest. We had been involved with China for 15 years. We started with money from Grameen Trust Fund in 1990, 91. At the conference there were 17 organisations, mainly foreign NGOs, working in micro-credit. I gave a speech on micro credit and how it was working. The next day the headlines in the Chinese papers read: Nobel Laureate says 'the government ignores the poor'. I was a little taken aback as I had said that the government was not showing much eagerness. The next day the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of China asked me to meet her. Madam Hu who was practically running the Central Bank started telling me how China helps the poor through giving loans. How rural credit cooperatives all over the country were operating and was successful, so many families were being reached. This took about 40 minutes as it had to be translated for me. She then told me to speak. I said I was happy that it was working in China but that I was not very encouraged to do this in Bangladesh as cooperatives usually were inefficient and corruption-ridden. I told her that I did not believe in trying to fix something that was faulty to begin with, I prefer to come up with something new. If it doesn't work I abandon it and try something else...So when I saw that this (micro credit) works for giving loans to women, this is what I have been working with.

Madam Hu and the other officials started talking and I learnt from the translator that she had said to them: 'I will abandon this. I have wasted enough time on this, it cannot be fixed so let's see how to do something different.'

During lunch she said : 'Why don't we invite you to levy Grameen Bank here?' She asked me 'Where should we start?' I said that it should be in the most difficult areas as if you could be successful in the most difficult area then there is no controversy and it means it can be done anywhere.

After some discussion it was decided that there were three most difficult areas, one of them was Sichuan province as it was a mountainous region with multi-ethnic population, no leadership.