Banking for the unbanked

What is Grameen America?

Grameen America is a microfinance organization with a mission to alleviate poverty through entrepreneurship. Grameen America provides loans, savings programs, credit establishment and other financial services to the working poor, especially women, in the United States.

How do they work?

Grameen America provides small loans, known as “microloans”, and other financial services to people with very low incomes, especially women, who are looking to start or grow their small businesses. Grameen America relies on the Grameen lending model developed by Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

Poverty in New York

The NY State poverty level is 13.8% or approximately 1.7 million people.
In New York City 650,000 people live below the poverty line.
Women are particularly vulnerable to poverty, especially single mothers.
- Single working mothers numbered approximately 312,600 in 2000, making up 10.35% of total households in NYC.
- A family headed by a single mother is 600% more likely to live below the poverty line than a family with a mother and a father.

Grameen America will serve its clients, especially women by:

-Providing them with small loans so that they can start or build small or home businesses, with terms that are an attractive alternative to predatory lenders.
-Creating a culture of savings and individual responsibility in all clients.
-Establishing and improving client credit ratings so that clients can better participate in the mainstream American economy.
-Educating clients about getting loans, building savings and managing credit as well as mainstream financial institutions as a built-in part of the Grameen America lending program.

What is the Grameen Lending Model?

Grameen America uses the Grameen group lending and savings model that has been developed and refined over thirty years by the Grameen Bank. The basis of the system is a peer group model in which borrowers encourage, support and learn from each other.

Grameen America is the U.S. operation of Grameen Bank, the “microlending” institution started in Bangladesh by Muhammad Yunus. Microlending is the lending of small amounts of money to people who are impoverished, unemployed or otherwise don’t meet even the minimal requirements to get traditional credit. Grameen, the world’s largest microlender, has lent money to more than 7.6 million people around the world, 97 percent of them women. It employs more than 24,000 people.

The company’s U.S. operations started last year in the Jackson Heights neighborhood in Queens, says Tanya Palit, a project manager with Grameen. Grameen has lent $1.2 million to 440 self-employed, low-income women – 99.5 percent of which has been repaid on time.

Palit says, Grameen is looking to raise $2 million from the community to put a branch in the Triangle, probably in Wake County. Early efforts already are under way, she says.
It would likely take around a year from the time the money was raised to the time that Grameen could open a branch. The lender plans to apply for North Carolina approval to begin operation as a credit union.

“Bankers help us because we help mainstream these people, people who are so low-income that they wouldn’t be able to qualify for a loan. The goal is eventually to get people into the financial mainstream. And regulators really like Grameen because we’re extremely accountable, and we’re working really hard with a group of people who often fall through the cracks of social support.”

Posted by: Mimmy Duhaylungsod

Social Business Entrepreneurs

by Muhammad Yunus

Capitalism is Interpreted too Narrowly

Many of the problems in the world remain unresolved because we continue to interpret capitalism too narrowly. In this narrow interpretation we create a one-dimensional human being to play the role of entrepreneur. We insulate him from other dimensions of life, such as, religious, emotional, political dimensions. He is dedicated to one mission in his business life ---- to maximize profit. He is supported by masses of one-dimensional human beings who back him up with their investment money to achieve the same mission. The game of free market works out beautifully with one-dimensional investors and entrepreneurs. We have remained so mesmerised by the success of the free market that we never dared to express any doubt about it. We worked extra hard to transform ourselves, as closely as possible, into the one-dimensional human beings as conceptualised in theory to allow smooth functioning of free market mechanism.

Economic theory postulates that you are contributing to the society and the world in the best possible manner if you just concentrate on squeezing out the maximum for yourself. When you get your maximum, everybody else will get their maximum.

As we devotedly follow this policy sometimes doubts appear in our mind whether we are doing the right thing. Things don't look too good around us. We quickly brush off our doubts by saying all these bad things happen because of "market failures"; well-functioning market cannot produce unpleasant results.

I think things are going wrong not because of "market failure". It is much deeper than that. Let us be brave and admit that it is because of "conceptualisation failure". More specifically, it is the failure to capture the essence of a human being in our theory. Everyday human beings are not one-dimensional entities, they are excitingly multi-dimensional and indeed very colourful. Their emotions, beliefs, priorities, behaviour patterns can be more aptly described by drawing analogy with the basic colours and millions of colours and shades they produce.

Social Business Entrepreneurs Can Play a Big Role in the Market

Suppose we postulate a world with two kinds of people, both one-dimensional, but having different objectives. One type is the existing type, i.e. profit maximizing type. Second type is a new type, who are not interested in profit-maximization. They are totally committed to make a difference to the world. They are social-objective driven. They want to give better chance in life to other people. They want to achieve their objective through creating/supporting sustainable business enterprises. Their businesses may or may not earn profit, but like any other businesses they must not incur losses. They create a new class of business which we may describe as "non-loss" business.

Can we find second type of people in the real world ? Yes, we can. Aren't we familiar with "do-gooders" ? Do-gooders are the same people who are referred to as "social entrepreneurs" in formal parlance.

Social entrepreneurism is an integral part of human history. Most people take pleasure in helping others. All religions encourage this quality in human beings. Governments reward them by giving tax breaks. Special legal facilities are created for them so that they can create legal entities to pursue their objectives. Some social entrepreneurs (SE) use money to achieve their objectives, some just give away their time, labour, talent, skill or such other contributions which are useful to others. Those who use money may or may not try to recover part or all of the money they put into their work by charging fee or price.

We may classify the SEs, who use money, into four types :

i) No cost recovery
ii) Some cost recovery
iii) Full cost recovery
iv) More than full cost-recovery

Once a SE operate at 100% or beyond the cost recovery point he has entered the business world with limitless possibilities. This is a moment worth celebrating. He has overcome the gravitational force of financial dependence and now is ready for space flight ! This is the critical moment of significant institutional transformation. He has moved from the world of philanthropy to the world of business. To distinguish him from the first two types of SEs listed above, we'll call him "social business entrepreneur" (SBE).

With the introduction of SBEs, the market place becomes more interesting and competitive. Interesting because two different kinds of objectives are now at play creating two different sets of frameworks for price determination. Competitive because there are more players now than before. These new players can be equally aggressive and enterprising in achieving their goals as the other entrepreneurs.

SBEs can become very powerful players in the national and international economy. Today if we add up the assets of all the SBEs of the world, it would not add up to even an ultra-thin slice of the global economy. It is not because they basically lack growth potential, but because conceptually we neither recognised their existence, nor made any room for them in the market. They are considered freaks, and kept outside the mainstream economy. We do not pay any attention to them, because our eyes are blinded by the theories taught in our schools.

If SBEs exist in the real world, it makes no sense why we should not make room for them in our conceptual framework. Once we recognise them supportive institutions, policies, regulations, norms, and rules will come into being to help them become mainstream.

Market is always considered to be an utterly incapable institution to address social problems. To the contrary, market is recognised as an institution significantly contributing to creating social problems (environmental hazards, inequality, health, unemployment, ghettoes, crimes, etc.). Since market has no capacity to solve social problem, this responsibility is handed over to the State. This arrangement was considered as the only solution until command economies were created where State took over everything, abolishing market.

But this did not last long. With command economies gone we are back to the artificial division of work between the market and the State. In this arrangement market is turned into an exclusive playground of the personal gain seekers, overwhelmingly ignoring the common interest of communities and the world as a whole.

With the economy expanding at an unforeseen speed, personal wealth reaching unimaginable heights, technological innovations making this speed faster and faster, globalisation threatening to wipe out the weak economies and the poor people from the economic map, it is time to consider the case of SBEs more seriously than we did ever before. Not only is it not necessary to leave the market solely to the personal-gain seekers, it is extremely harmful to mankind as a whole to do that. It is time to move away from the narrow interpretation of capitalism and broaden the concept of market by giving full recognition to SBEs. Once this is done SBEs can flood the market and make the market work for social goals as efficiently as it does for personal goals.

Social Stock Market

How do we encourage creation of SBEs ? What are the steps that we need to take to facilitate the SBEs to take up bigger and bigger chunks of market share ?

First, we must recognise the SBEs in our theory. Students must learn that businesses are of two kinds : a) business to make money, and b) business to do good to others. Young people must learn that they have a choice to make --- which kind of entrepreneur they would like to be ? If we broaden the interpretation of capitalism even more, they'll have wider choice of mixing these two basic types in proportions just right for their own taste.

Second, we must make the SBEs and social business investors visible in the market place. As long as SBEs operate within the cultural environment of present stock markets they'll remain restricted by the existing norms and lingo of trading. SBEs must develop their own norms, standards, measurements, evaluation criteria, and terminology. This can be achieved only if we create a separate stockmarket for social business enterprises and investors. We can call it Social Stock Market. Investors will come here to invest their money for the cause they believe in, and in the company they think is doing the best in achieving a particular mission. There may be some companies listed in this social stock market who are excellent in achieving their mission at the same time making very attractive profit on the side. Obviously these companies will attract both kinds of investors, social-goal oriented as well as personal-gain oriented.


Making profit will not disqualify an enterprise to be a social business enterprise. Basic deciding factor for this will be whether the social goal remains to be enterprise's over-arching goal, and it is clearly reflected in its decision-making. There will be well-defined stringent entry and exit criteria for a company to qualify to be listed in the social stock market and to lose that status. Soon companies will emerge which will succeed in mixing both social goal and personal goal. There will be decision-rules to decide upto what point they still qualify to enter the social stock market, and at what point they must leave it. Investors must remain convinced that companies listed in the social stock market are truly social business enterprises.

Along with the creation of the Social Stock Market we'll need to create rating agencies, appropriate impact assessment tools, indices to understand which social business enterprise is doing more and/or better than others --- so that social investors are correctly guided. This industry will need its Social Wall Street Journal and Social Financial Times to bring out all the exciting, as well as the terrible, news stories and analyses to keep the social entrepreneurs and investors properly informed and forewarned.

Within business schools we can start producing social MBAs to meet the demand of the SBEs as well as preparing young people to become SBEs themselves. I think young people will respond very enthusiastically to the challenge of making serious contributions to the world by becoming SBEs.

We'll need to arrange financing for SBEs. New bank branches specialising in financing social business ventures will have to come up. New "angels" will have to show up on the scene. Social Venture Capitalists will have to join hands with the SBEs.

How to Make a Start

One good way to get started with creating social business enterprises would be to launch a design competition for social business enterprises. There can be local competition, regional competition and global competition. Prizes for the successful designs will come in the shape of financing for the enterprises, or as partnership for implementing the projects.

All submitted social business proposals can be published so that these can become the starting points for the designers in the next cycles, or ideas for someone who wants to start a social business enterprise.

Social Stock Market itself can be started by a SBE as social business enterprise. One business school, or several business schools can join hands to launch this as a project and start serious business transactions.

Let us not expect that a social business enterprise will come up, from its very birth, with all the answers to a social problem. Most likely, it will proceed in steps. Each step may lead to the next level of achievement. Grameen Bank is a good example in this regard. In creating Grameen Bank I never had a blue-print to follow. I moved one step at a time, always thinking this step will be my last step. But it was not. That one step led me to another step, a step which looked so interesting that it was difficult to walk away from. I faced this situation at every turn.

I started my work by giving small amount of money to a few poor people without any collateral. Then I realised how good the people felt about it. I needed more money to expand the programme. To access bank money, I offered myself as a guarantor. To get support from another bank, I converted my project as the bank's project. Later, I turned it into central bank project. Over time I saw that the best strategy would be to create an independent bank to do the work that we do. So we did. We converted the project into a formal bank, borrowing money from the central bank to lend money to the borrowers. Since donors became interested in our work, and wanted to support us, we borrowed and received grants from international donors. At one stage we decided to be self-reliant. This led us to focus on generating money internally by collecting deposits. Now Grameen Bank has more money in deposits than it lends out to borrowers. It lends out half a billion dollars a year, in loans averaging under $ 200, to 4.5 million borrowers, without collateral, and maintains 99 per cent repayment record.

We introduced many programmes in the bank --- housing loans, student loans, pension funds, loans to purchase mobile phones to become the village telephone ladies, loans to beggars to become door-to-door salesman. One came after another.
If we create the right environment, SBEs can take up significant market share and make the market an exciting place for fighting social battles in ever innovative and effective ways.
Lets get serious about social business entrepreneurs. They can brighten up this gloomy world.

Posted by: Mimmy Duhaylungsod
Source: Grameen-info

Muhammad Yunus

This video includes Muhammad Yunus' stories and visions before and after being a social entrepreneur.

"First, i want to find a solution to a problem..."

"It took so little money to free village women from modern-day slavery, humiliation and torture... "

Posted by: Mimmy Duhaylungsod

Inspiring story - “Giving Away” $50 Bills

by Mark Skousen, Chairman, Investment U

Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank: The Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Genius Behind the World’s Most Original Bank (Which Is “Giving Away” $50 Bills)

I remember as a young boy people telling me that borrowing money and going into debt were very, very bad.

“Neither a lender nor borrower be,” declared Shakespeare. Ben Franklin warned in The Way to Wealth, “The first vice is running in debt… You give to another power over your liberty… Be frugal and free.”

And church leader J. Rueben Clark says debt “never sleeps nor sickens nor dies… and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.”

Financial advisors warn repeatedly to stay out of debt, and gold bugs publish charts showing the national debt by consumers, business and government climbing to unsustainable levels.

Sounds ominous, doesn’t it?

Going into debt is a serious matter and should not be done lightly. I don’t recommend it for most consumer goods, and certainly not for buying food at the grocery store or 7-Eleven. In short, use cash.

Debt, however, does have its advantages. In this issue, we’ll discuss Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank and the Micro-Credit Revolution. First, a closer look at the virtue of debt as it relates to the Micro-Credit movement…


The Difference Between Starvation and Prosperity

For those of you still skeptical about the virtue of debt, consider this…

Laily Begun and her husband, Atiqullah, were manual laborers in Bangladesh who barely had enough to eat. She took out a $50 “micro” loan from the Grameen Bank to buy a cow, which allowed her to make some extra cash selling milk.

She borrowed another $65 for a second cow, and her little business flourished. Now she had enough to apply for a mobile phone. Laily became known as the “Village Phone Lady,” and before long, she was earning nearly $300 a month. With their savings, the couple set up five shops and a restaurant. They now live in a brick house, own two color TVs, a refrigerator and a cassette player, and send their three children to school.

All because of a $50 starter loan.

The Grameen Bank is not a charity. Billions in foreign aid have been thrown at poor people without effect. Only when a for-profit bank began lending to the desperately poor did anything positive come of it. Grameen Bank charges 18% interest on its micro-loans, and has only a 5% default rate. How is this possible? Borrowers must join small support groups, and if one defaults, the others are forced to take over his debts.

It seems impossible, but so far the Grameen Bank has made more than $5 billion in loans, and its model has been imitated around the world, even by the World Bank.

Yunus founded the Grameen Bank in the world’s poorest country, and today has branches in over 71,371 villages in Bangladesh through collateral-free micro credits to needy entrepreneurs.

While the World Bank has imitated his micro-credit model, Yunus decries the organization in his book Banker to the Poor: “We at the Grameen Bank have never wanted or accepted World Bank funding because we do not like the way the bank conducts business.” Nor does he like foreign aid. “Aid-funding projects create massive bureaucracies, which quickly become corrupt and inefficient, incurring huge losses.”


Posted by: Mimmy Duhaylungsod
Source: http://www.investmentu.com/

All human beings are potential entrepreneurs

Yunus believes that poverty can be eradicated by loaning poor people the capital they need to engage in profitable businesses, not by giving them a handout or engaging in population control. In his own words, “All human beings are potential entrepreneurs.”

Edited & Posted by Mimmy Duhaylungsod
Sources: flicker.com & http://www.investmentu.com/IUEL/2006/20061027.html

Muhammad Yunus on Ending Global Poverty

The innovation style of social entrepreneurs

Two great social entrepreneurs, Nobel Peace Price winner Mohammad Yunus of Bangladesh and British activist Michael Young, were outstanding experimental innovators.

As typical seekers, they achieved their successes by trial and error and often were unsure of themselves.

“The late Michael Young, who has been spoken of several times today, was perhaps the world’s most prolific social entrepreneur and was an archetypal experimental innovator. He had the basic uncertainty of the experimentalist, as he once declared that ‘I have never had an idea that I was sure about.’ As a result, in all his activities he proceeded cautiously. In the introduction to his doctoral thesis, he compared his scholarly method to the experience of finding his way through the dense London fog that had enveloped him on his first visit to the East End community that became the subject of that thesis: He wrote, ‘I felt my way along, tapping my foot against the kerbstones as I went. I am still tapping.’

“Yet his uncertainty never prevented him from making an effort to achieve what he understood to be the best option, no matter how much opposition he encountered. He attributed his accomplishments to a combination ‘of perseverance and bloody-mindedness.’ Above all, however, he reserved the right to change his mind as he went, for his tapping in the dark was not aimed merely at moving, but at making progress. In 1998, at the opening of his School for Social Entrepreneurs, in his inaugural speech the 83-year-old Lord Young offered a remarkable definition that captured the essential humility and open-mindedness of the experimental innovator, as he explained that ‘Introducing an innovation is an exercise of entrepreneurship, and for me entrepreneurship is best thought of as a concentrated and targeted kind of learning… . The idea has to be subject to continuous examination, a continuous trial and error.’ Appropriately, Young made that speech in Bethnal Green, where decades earlier he had learned about the problems facing the English working class by talking to the people who lived there.

“Over time, Young had become more and more deeply engaged with these problems, for as his friend and biographer Asa Briggs remarked of Young, he was ‘a traveler who becomes increasingly involved the longer he continues his journey.’

“Nor should Young’s experimental orientation be considered in any way surprising, for the complex problems faced by social entrepreneurs can often be expected to require perseverance and bloody-mindedness in the face of both external opposition and internal uncertainty. And perhaps the key is Michael Young’s emphasis on entrepreneurship as learning, not with a fixed goal but as an open-ended process, with continuous examination and constant trial and error. Michael Young was a successful scholar, but Asa Briggs noted that he was never completely comfortable in a university setting, for he needed to be in the field learning about the problems he wanted to solve. Michael Young would certainly have agreed with the metaphor of another important social entrepreneur, Muhammad Yunus, that the university classroom was like a beautiful movie theater, ‘where professors have all the answers and the tale works out so neatly at the end of the day. But it’s make-believe. When you turn on the lights and go outside, it’s a completely different world.’

“Frustrated by the failure of economic theory to help solve the problems of the rural poor during a famine in Bangladesh in 1974, Yunus decided to learn about the poor at first hand by going into their villages, and in his book ‘Banker to the Poor’ he tells us that it was there that ‘the poor taught me an entirely new economics.’ In classic experimental terms, Yunus tells us that when he first began lending money to the poor, ‘I did not know if I was right. I had no idea what I was getting into. I was walking blind and learning as I went.’

“Yunus founded the Grameen Bank on the basic principle that experience is the best guide. All the bank’s employees are encouraged to suggest changes in even the most basic rules. If they perceive better procedures for dealing with the problems they encounter in the course of their daily work.

“Social entrepreneurs do not all have to be experimental; most disciplines, both artistic and scholarly, thrive on the combination of the two approaches, and the creative tension between theoretical and empirical innovation. But as in other disciplines, it is the experimentalists who are likely to have the harder time finding their way.”

by Colin Stewart

Source: http://artsofinnovation.wordpress.com/
Posted by: Mimmy Duhaylungsod

A very fruitful interview with MY

Dr. Muhammad Yunus is known throughout the world as a pioneer of the microcredit concept that uses small loans made at affordable interest rates to transform the lives of impoverished people, mostly women. The founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Yunus and Grameen were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

This is a longer, edited transcript of the broadcast interview.

NOW: You said that credit is a human right. Others say it's a responsibility and not everybody deserves credit. Can you explain why you believe credit is a human right and why everyone should be able to have access to it?

MUHAMMAD YUNUS (MY): Well, we have a list of human rights—right to food, right to shelter, right to health, right to education, many such items which are considered and accepted as bill of rights. These are to be insured to people. So all nations, all societies try to do that. And who is going to bring food to a person who is hungry? Who is going to bring the shelter to a homeless person? Of course you say, government should do it. And even if government tried its best, how many are they going to reach?

So I was proposing to put a right to credit. It's also a human right, so that people can create their self-employment with that money. If they can create income for themselves, they can take care of right to food, right to shelter much more easily than government can ever do it.

NOW: How important is credit to human development?

If you have that money in your hand, you desperately try to make the best use of it and move ahead.

MY: Credit is very important. If you look at the world today, I would say probably two-thirds of the world population does not have access to financial services. But that's the first thing that we should take care of. Money begets money. If you don't have that, you wait around to be hired by somebody at the mercy of others. If you have that money in your hand, you desperately try to make the best use of it and move ahead. And that's generating income for yourself.

All human beings are very creative—full of potential, full of energy...So, money kind of allows them to express it ... And if you're successful, you can take more money. You can expand your capacity, reach next level of capacity, and so on.

NOW: What's wrong with charity? What's wrong with the traditional donor-driven aid projects?

MY: Four years back, we started a program exclusively for beggars. Because many people are arguing that the poorest people don't have the capacity to go into business, earn money. I always argued the other way. I said, "All human beings are born entrepreneurs. Some get a chance to unleash that capacity. Some never got the chance, never knew that he or she has that capacity."

So in order to address the debate, I thought we should demonstrate it. So we came up with this idea. Why don't we focus on the beggars? So we go to the beggars and explain, "As you go from house to house, would you take some merchandise with you, some cookies, some candy, some toys, some sweets?" And then you give people option [of] whether they will give you something as charity or they will buy something from you. It's up to them to decide.

Today we have 100,000 beggars in that program. Typical loan for beggars is in the neighborhood of 12 to 15 dollars. Over four years, the loan that we have given out to them, more than half that money has already been paid back. It's a non-interest bearing loan. You don't have to pay the interest so that you don't worry about money growing in your hand. It won't grow, so take your time. Only thing is, if you pay us back fully you get more money.

The point here is, I could have given them 12 or 15 dollars as a gift, as a charity. Would they have paid back? Would they have created this? More than 10,000 of them out of 100,000 have stopped begging completely. They are now door-to-door salespersons. The remaining 90 percent, I can probably say that they are part-time beggars, in the process of kind of closing down their begging division and concentrating on their sales division of their work.

Many have taken the second loan and the third loan already. So this is the difference between what I would've given by charity. I could've given each one $15. They would have eaten better or bought some of the things they needed and used it and probably come back and say, "Can you give us some more because this is all gone?"

I'm not saying charity's a bad thing, bad. No, charity's very important. But charity has a time and place where he can be. Not every situation should be addressed by charity. And charity always has to be a temporary phenomenon, not a permanent solution.

NOW: What impact have you seen through your work? And what do you see it capable of doing in the future?

MY: First of all, a person who can handle credit—one thing right away happens to her. She becomes more confident in herself than she was before. It's confidence level: "Yes, I can handle it. I'm capable of doing something on my own. I'm in [the] driver's seat of my own life."

So this is very important for a human being to move gradually up. It may lead to getting out of poverty. May, may not, but this is important for a person to understand that, "I can take care of myself."

Today we have 7.2 million borrowers. And the bank is owned by the borrowers. So ownership of a giant bank is also something very important to them. It's an ownership thing.

Of these 7.2 million borrowers, as I said, 97 percent are women. For them, a bank account is something unheard of. Now not only [do] they have a bank account, 67 percent of the total deposit comes from their own money. So technically what is happening when I'm dealing a $100 loan, $67 out of that loan—it's her own money.

And then we give housing loans. We have student loans, student loans for going for higher education. Right now we have over 18,000 students in medical schools, engineering schools, universities, with Grameen bank loans. So you are creating a completely new generation.

And our idea is, of this 7.2 million families that we have, at least these children will not go back to the same level that their parents were—who lived in the cycle of poverty.

NOW: Let's talk about the wide scale effect. Do you feel like microcredit is making a dent in lifting people out of poverty and reducing people's suffering?

MY: That's a research question... and Grameen Bank has been a subject of research for many, many years now. Volumes have been written about it. PhDs have been made out of it.

So all of them say this common thing, that income level is rising, abilities promoting. And people are coming out of poverty. Even the World Bank study said 5 percent of the Grameen borrowers get out of poverty every year—which means, every day, every week more and more families are getting out. Our own internal surveys—which we do every year—say that about 64 percent of the Grameen borrowers who have been with Grameen Bank for five years or more have come out of poverty in 2006.

And at the same time the children of those families hopefully will push the family far away from the poverty line. Even disasters like floods and other things will not push them back into poverty again—so that they can create a completely different life for themselves.

So I would say that—within Bangladesh, today—80 percent of the poor families have access to microcredit—which is the most intensively done microcredit in the whole world. Within say, another four years, we would like to reach 100 percent of poor families with microcredit.

All human beings are born entrepreneurs. Some get a chance to unleash that capacity. Some never got the chance, never knew that he or she has that capacity

Probably all countries of the world have microcredit programs today in one form or another, but very small. Eighty-five percent of the microcredit loan recipients are within Asia, probably 10 percent Africa, five percent in Latin America. It doesn't make a big national impact.

In Bangladesh, it has made national impact because it's so intensively done. We could take care of the disasters, for example, much better than we used to do two or three years back, because people didn't have any access to financing for themselves... So the impact will come when you are reaching out to more.

What happened to the families who have been consistently with microcredit for a sustained number of years? That's the impact that you'll see. And Bangladesh is a good case where you can see that. You can see the positive impact on those families, very positive impact.

NOW: What do you think is the appropriate relationship between profit and the poor?

MY: I talk about a basic fault in the system that we developed—what is known as free market economy or a capitalist economy. In the capitalist economic theoretical framework, you have only one kind of business, business to make money. There's no other kind of business.

And profit maximization is the sole goal of business. So if you are in business, you are concentrating on maximization of your profit. That's what the theory says and that's what you try to achieve. And I think this is a very wrong way to interpret human beings. Human beings are not robots or money-making machines.

Human beings are much bigger than that. There are other aspects like the caring human being, the sharing human being. These are not included in this theory. So the theory is based on a very partial view of human being.

In order to accommodate the whole of human being—one first step would be to create another kind of business: business to do good to people without any expectation of any personal benefit out of it.

Once you have this two kinds of businesses, then you have balance ... and you can build a whole economy on the basis of that. Microcredit can exemplify the whole thing right here. You could build microfinance program, either as a profit-maximizing company or as a social business company. It's up to you to choose.

If you are doing it as a profit-maximizing company, of course you want to raise it as high as possible so that you can make money. So that becomes the traditional way of lending money to the poor, which is money lending. And that's what they do. Whether you like it or not, when they lend you money—100 pesos in the morning and ask for 120 pesos in the evening, 20 percent per day—they are just trying to take advantage of the market, and it's a good market to make a lot of money. And people get money to do some business.

But what you are doing, you are taking away their income because you want to [maximize] your profit. Our work, Grameen's work [began] to remove money lenders so that people can retain their own income by their own effort, so that the business can come which will help them to retain their own money, own income, so that they can move out of poverty quicker.

So we designed it as a social business, a social business where you don't do it for dividends... If the borrowers, the poor people themselves are the owners of their program, or the owners of the company, then no matter how much profit they make it goes back to them because they are the owners of the company. So that becomes a social business also.

So this Grameen Bank is owned by the borrowers. Last year in 2006, we made profit enough to give our shareholders 100 percent.

So it's a question of how you want to design it. I would not prefer that the microcredit, microfinance, be a profit-maximizing business because that's not where our starting point is. We want it to help people get out poverty. If you are squeezing out everything [just] like the money lenders, then that objective is removed. The objective is very different. It is not a social objective. It's a very personal objective.

source:Q&A with Muhammad Yunus - http://www.pbs.org/now/enterprisingideas/Muhammad-Yunus.html

Posted by: Mimmy Duhaylungsod

Muhammad Yunus' Vision

Muhammad Yunus’s vistion is the total eradication of poverty from the world. 'Grameen', he claims, 'is a message of hope, a programme for putting homelessness and destitution in a museum so that one day our children will visit it and ask how we could have allowed such a terrible thing to go on for so long'.

This work is a fundamental rethink on the economic relationship between the rich and the poor, their rights and their obligations. The World Bank recently acknowledged that 'this business approach to the alleviation of poverty has allowed millions of individuals to work their way out of poverty with dignity'.

Credit is the last hope left to those faced with absolute poverty. That is why Muhammad Yunus believes that the right to credit should be recognized as a fundamental human right. It is this struggle and the unique and extraordinary methods he invented to combat human despair that Muhammad Yunus recounts here with humility and conviction. It is also the view of a man familiar with both Eastern and Western cultures — on the failures and potential for good of industrial countries. It is an appeal for action: we must concentrate on promoting the will to survive and the courage to build in the first and most essential element of the economic cycle — Man.

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Posted by: Mimmy Duhaylungsod

Bio-Data of Dr. Muhammad Yunus

Bio-Data of Professor Muhammad Yunus Managing Director, Grameen Bank Dhaka, Bangladesh

Personal Information Name PROFESSOR MUHAMMAD YUNUS Present Address Managing Director Grameen Bank, Mirpur Two, Dhaka 1216, Bangladesh Website : www.grameen.com Date of Birth June 28, 1940 Marital Status Married Nationality Bangladeshi Education Ph.D in Economics, Vanderbilt University, U.S.A.(1970). Scholarships / fellowships 1) Awarded Fulbright Fellowship to study in the U.S.A. for 1965-66. 2) Awarded Vanderbilt University research and teaching fellowships during 1966-69. 3) Awarded Eisenhour Exchange Fellowship for 1984. 4) Senior Fellow, The Institute of Mediterranean Studies,Universita della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland (2000 - ). Professional Experiences 1962 - 65 Lecturer of Economics, Chittagong College Bangladesh 1969 - 72 Assistant Professor of Economics, MTSU, Tennessee, USA 1972(July-Sept) Deputy Chief, General Economics Division, Planning Commission,Government of Bangladesh. 1972 - 75 Associate Professor of Economics and Head of the Department of Economics, Chittagong University, Bangladesh 1975 - 1989 Professor of Economics, Chittagong University and Director, Rural Economics Programme, Chittagong, Bangladesh 1976 - 1983 Project Director, Grameen Bank Project, Bangladesh 1983 - today Managing Director, Grameen Bank, Bangladesh 1996(April-June) Cabinet Minister (Advisor) in the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh Membership of Committees and Commissions (National) 1) Was member, National Committee on Population Policy set up by the President of Bangladesh, in 1981. 2) Was member, Land Reform Committee, set up by Chief Martial Law Administrator, headed by the Minister of Agriculture, in 1982. 3) Member, Education Commission (1987-88), Government of Bangladesh. 4) Member, Presidential Committee on Health Education and Service (1987-88). 5) Appointed as the Chairman of the Socio-economic Committee of the National Disaster Prevention Council set up by the President of Bangladesh (1989-90). 6) Member of the National Debt Settlement Board headed by the President of Bangladesh (1989-90). 7) Member of the Task Force for reviewing the operation of the Nationalised Commercial Banks(1989). 8) Appointed as the Convenor of the Task Force on Self-Reliance set up by the Planning Advisor(1991). 9) Member of the National ICT Task Force Committee, Ministry of Planning, Bangladesh (2002 - ). Membership of Committees and Commissions (International) 1) Appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations as a member of the International Advisory Group for the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China (1993-1995). 2) Appointed as a member of the Global Commission on Women's Health for the period 1993-1995 by the Director General, World Health Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland. 3) Appointed as member of Advisory Council for Sustainable Economic Development, World Bank, Washington DC, USA (1993-to-date). 4) Appointed as member of the UN Expert Group on Women and Finance : Transforming Enterprise and Finance Systems, UNIFEM, Washington DC, USA (1993 to date). 5) Chairman of the Policy Advisory Group for the CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest), World Bank , Washington D.C., U.S.A. (1995 - 2000). 6) Member of the Council of Patrons of Friends of the Earth International, Amsterdam, Netherlands to support it in its continued campaigns to protect the environment (1996). 7) Member of theAdvisory Committee, Asian Ecotechnology Network. 8) Co-Chairman , State of the World Forum, San Francisco, U.S.A. (1996 ). 9) Co-Chairman, Council of Practitioners, Micro-Credit Summit, U.S.A. (1997 - ). 10) Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee, Center of Arab Women For Training And Research (CAWTAR), Tunisia (1997 - ). 11) Member of the Advisory Group, Institute For Democracy And Electoral Assistance (IDEA), Sweden (1997 - ). 12) Honourary Member, Club of Budapest, London, U.K. ( 1997 - ). 13) Member of the Advisory Group, Council of Women World Leaders, Kennedy Schools of Government Harvard University, U.S.A. (1997 - ). 14) Member of the Advisory Committee, 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture and the Environment initiative, IFPRI, U.S.A. (1998 - ). 15) Member of the Advisory Committee, INTERNEWS, Arcata, San Francisco, U.S.A. (1999 - ). 16) Member of the International Consultative Committee, International Forum, Mujeres & Hombres, Lima, Peru (1999 - ). 17) Member, AGFUND Prize Committee, AGFUND, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (1999 - ). 18) Member, Hilton Humanitarian Prize Jury Committee, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, U.S.A. (1999 - ). 19) Member of the Presiding Council of the ProVention Consortium (a global partnership to address the increasing vulnerability of developing countries to the risk of natural and technological catastrophes), World Bank, Washington DC, U.S.A. (2000 - to-date). 20) Member of the High Council of International Exhibitions, International Bureau of Expositions, Paris, France (2000 - ). 21) Member of the High-Level Advisory Group on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), United Nations, New York, U.S.A. (2000 - ). 22) Member, Advisory Committee, Queen Sofia Chamber Orchestra (Orquestra de Camara Reina Sofia), Madrid, Spain (2001 - ). 23) Member, Global Steering Committee for the Fish for All Initiative, ICLARM, Malaysia (2002 - ). 24) Member, International Jury Committee of the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development, Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, India (2002 - 2004). 25) Co-Chairman, Ambassadors' Council, Freedom from Hunger, U.S.A. (2003 - todate). 26) Member, Africa Progress Panel, UK (2007 - to-date). 27) Member, Elders Project, South Africa (2007 - to-date). 28) Co-Chairman, Women's World Forum, Republic of Korea (2007 - to-date). Member, Board of Advisors (International) 1) Calmeadow Foundation, 4 Kind Street West, Suite 300, Toronto, Ontario M5H 1B6, Canada. 2) The Synergose Institute, 100 East 85th Street, New York, NY10028 U.S.A. 3) Living Economics, 42 Warriner Gardens, London SW11 4DU, U.K. 4) International Council for Freedom From Hunger, U.S.A. 5) International Council, Ashoka Foundation, Washington DC, USA. 6) Advisory Council, Women for Women of Bosnia, Washington DC, USA. 7) Advisory Board, The Center For Visionary Leadership, Washington D.C., U.S.A. 8) International Advisory Board, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, U.S.A. 9) International Advisory Board, Foundation for the Research of Societal Problems Ankara, Turkey. 10) Advisory Board, Credit for All, Inc. Denver, U.S.A 11) Advisory Board, The Gleitsman Foundation International Activist Award, California, U.S.A. 12) International Council, Asia Society, New York, U.S.A. 13) International Advisory Panel, UNESCO, Paris, France. 14) International Advisory Board, The Center For Visionary Leadership, Washington D.C. U.S.A. 15) International Council on the Future, UNESCO, Paris, France. 16) Global Advisory Board, EARTH ONE (a radio service for the world community) Borehamwood, United Kingdom. 17) Global Public Goods Advisory Board, Office of Development Studies, UNDP, New York, U.S.A 18) Advisory Board, Information Technologies and International Development, MIT Media Laboratory, Cambridge, U.S.A. 19) Advisory Board, Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Germany. 20) Advisory Panel, ESCAP/UNDP Joint Initiative in Supporting the Achievement of Millennium Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific Region, Thailand. 21) Founder Member, The Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship, Ashoka, U.S.A. 22) Advisory Board, Prague Institute for Global Urban Development, Czechoslovakia. 23) Honorary Advisory Council, Alliance for the New Humanity (ANH), U.S.A. 24) Advisory Council for the new Templeton Freedom Awards, Atlas Economic Research Foundation , U.S.A 25) Advisory Board, Holcim Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland. 26) Advisory Board, Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence, Virginia,U.S.A. Member, Board of Directors (National) 1) 1976 - 1983 Founder and Project Director, Grameen Bank Project. 2) 1983 - to-date Founder and Managing Director, Grameen Bank, Dhaka. 3) 1991 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Krishi (Agriculture) Foundation, Rangpur. 4) 1990 - to-date Founder and Executive Trustee, Grameen Trust, Dhaka. 5) 1990 - to-date Designer and member of Governing Body, Polli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), Dhaka. 6) 1979 - to-date Member, Board of Directors, Centre for Mass Education for Science, Dhaka. 7) 1994 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Fund (a Social Venture Capital Fund), Dhaka. 8) 1994 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Motsho (Fisheries)O PasuSampad (Livestock) Foundation, Dhaka. 9) 1994 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Uddog, a non-stock, non-profit organization dedicated to promote the interest of the handloom-weavers of Bangladesh. 10) 1995 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Telecom, a cellular telephone company to provide nationwide telephone service. It will provide telephone service in the rural areas of Bangladesh primarily through the poor women in rural areas. 11) 1995 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Shamogree (Products), Dhaka. 12) 1995 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Gona Shyastha Grameen Textile Mills Ltd., Dhaka. 13) 1996 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Cybernet, Dhaka. 14) 1996 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Communications, Dhaka. 15) 1996 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Kallyan (well-being), Dhaka. 16) 1996 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Shakti (energy), Dhaka. 17) 1996 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Yunus Foundation, Dhaka. 18) 1996 - to-date Member, Advisory Council of the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, Dhaka. 19) 1997 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Shikkha (Education), Dhaka. 20) 1997 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Knitwear Ltd., Dhaka. 21) 1998 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Capital Management Ltd, Dhaka. 22) 1999 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Software Ltd, Dhaka. 23) 2000 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen IT Park Ltd, Dhaka. 24) 2002 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Star Education Ltd, Dhaka. 25) 2002 - to-date Founder and Chairman, Grameen Information Highways Ltd, Dhaka. Member, Board of Directors (International) 1) 1987 - 1997 Board of Directors, RESULTS, A Citizen's Lobby, Washington DC, U.S.A. 2) 1987 - 1995 Board of Trustees, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (A Grameen Replication Project in Malaysia.) 3) 1989 - 1994 Board of Trustees of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines. 4) 1990 - to-date Chief Patron, Credit and Savings for Hardcore Poor, (CASHPOR), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 5) 1990 - 1992 Steering Committee, The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Geneva, Switzerland. 6) 1992 - 2002 Board of Directors, Calvert World Values Fund, Washington DC, USA. 7) 1993 - to-date Board of Directors, Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA), U.S.A. 8) 1995 - to-date International Crisis Group, Washington D.C., U.S.A. 9) 1996 - to-date Patron, United Kingdom Social Investment Forum, London,U.K. 10) 1998 - to-date Board of Directors, United Nations Foundation , Washington, U.S.A. 11) 2000 - to-date Founding Patron, C21 : Tomorrow’s Leaders for a Safer Planet, Oxford Research Group , Oxford, United Kingdom. 12) 2001 - to-date Board of Directors, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship , Cologny, Switzerland. 13) 2002 - to-date Board of Director, ManyOne Foundation, Canada. 14) 2006 - to-date Board of Trustees, Coexist Foundation, University of Cambridge, UK. 15) 2007 - to-date Board of Director, Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, Monaco. Awards : 1. BANGLADESH President's Award : 1978 Originator of the concept of Three share Farming (Tebhaga Khamar) as a joint farming operation. Organised Nabajug Tebhaga Khamar in Jobra, Chittagong in 1975, around a deep tubewell which was lying unused because of management problems. Government of Bangladesh adopted the concept and introduced it in the country under the name of "Packaged Input Programme" (PIP) in 1977. Nabajug Tebhaga Khamar was awarded President's Award in 1978 for introducing an innovative organisation in agriculture. 2. PHILIPPINES Ramon Magsaysay Award : 1984 Awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award in the Field of "Community Leadership" in 1984 for "Enabling the neediest rural men and women to make themselves productive with sound group managed credit." 3. BANGLADESH Central Bank Award : 1985 Awarded the Bangladesh Bank Award 1985 in recognition of the contribution in devising a new banking mechanism to extend credit to the rural landless population, thereby creating self employment and socio economic development for them. 4. BANGLADESH Independence Day award : 1987 Awarded the Independence Day Award, 1987, by the President for the outstanding contribution in rural development. This is the highest civilian national award of Bangladesh. 5. SWITZERLAND Aga Khan Award For Architecture : 1989 Awarded Aga Khan Award For Architecture, 1989 by Geneva based Aga Khan Foundation for designing and operating Grameen Bank Housing Programme for the poor, which helped poor members of Grameen Bank to construct 60,000 housing units by 1989, each costing on an average $ 300. 6. U.S.A. Humanitarian Award : 1993 Awarded 1993 Humanitarian Award by the CARE, U.S.A. in recognition of role in providing a uniquely pragmatic and effective method of empowering poor women and men to embark on income generating activities. 7. SRI LANKA Mohamed Sahabdeen Award for Science (Socio Economic) : 1993 Awarded Mohamed Sahabdeen Award for Science (Socio Economic) in 1993. 8. BANGLADESH Rear Admiral M. A. Khan Memorial Gold Medal Award : 1993 Awarded Rear Admiral Mahbub Ali Khan Memorial Gold Medal Award in 1993. 9. U.S.A. World Food Prize : 1994 Awarded 1994 World Food Prize by World Food Prize Foundation, U.S.A. in recognition of the lifetime achievements of an economist who created a bank loan system that has given millions of people access to adequate food and nutrition for the first time in their lives. 10. U.S.A. Pfeffer Peace Prize : 1994 Awarded 1994 Pfeffer Peace Prize by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, U.S.A. for his vision of non collateral lending through the Grameen Bank and the courage of persevere in the concept that credit is a human right. 11. BANGLADESH Dr. Mohammad Ibrahim Memorial Gold Medal Award : 1994 Awarded Dr. Mohammad Ibrahim Memorial Gold Medal Award in 1994. 12. SWITZERLAND Max Schmidheiny Foundation Freedom Prize : 1995 Awarded Max Schmidheiny Foundation Freedom Prize in 1995. 13. BANGLADESH RCMD Award : 1995 Awarded Rotary Club of Metropolitan Dhaka Foundation Award in 1995. 14. VENEZUELA & UNESCO International Simon Bolivar Prize : 1996 Awarded International Simon Bolivar Prize in 1996. 15. U.S.A. "Distinguished Alumnus Award" of Vanderbilt University : 1996 Awarded "Distinguished Alumnus Award" of Vanderbilt University in 1996. 16. U.S.A. International Activist Award : 1997 Awarded International Activist Award Gleitsman Foundation, U.S.A., in 1997. 17. GERMANY Planetary Consciousness Business Innovation Prize : 1997 Awarded "Planetary Consciousness Business Innovation Prize" by the club of Budapest in 1997. 18. NORWAY Help for self help Prize : 1997 Awarded "Help for self help Prize" by the Stromme Foundation in 1997. 19. ITALY Man for Peace Award : 1997 Awarded "Man for Peace Award" by the Together For Peace Foundation in 1997. 20. U.S.A. State of the World Forum Award : 1997 Awarded "State of the World Forum Award" by the State of the World Forum, San Francisco in 1997. 21. U.K. One World Broadcasting Trust Media Awards : 1998 Awarded “One World Broadcasting Trust Special Award” by the One World Broadcasting Trust in 1998. 22. SPAIN The Prince of Austurias Award for Concord : 1998 Awarded “The Prince of Austurias Award for Concord” by The Prince of Austurias Foundation in 1998. 23. AUSTRALIA Sydney Peace Prize : 1998 Awarded “Sydney Peace Prize” by the Sydney Peace Foundation in 1998. 24. JAPAN Ozaki (Gakudo) Award : 1998 Awarded “Ozaki (Gakudo) Award” by the Ozaki Yukio Memorial Foundation in 1998. 25. INDIA Indira Gandhi Prize : 1998 Awarded “Indira Gandhi Prize” for Peace, Disarmament and Development by the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust in 1998. 26. FRANCE Juste of the Year Award : 1998 Awarded "Juste of the Year" by the Les Justes D'or in 1998. 27. U.S.A. Rotary Award for World Understanding 1999 Awarded “Rotary Award for World Understanding” by the Rotary International in 1999. 28. ITALY Golden Pegasus Award : 1999 Awarded “Golden Pegasus Award” by the TUSCAN Regional Government in 1999. 29. ITALY Roma Award for Peace and Humanitarian Action : 1999 Awarded “Roma Award for Peace and Humanitarian Action” by the Municipality of Rome in 1999. 30. INDIA Rathindra Puraskar : 1998 Awarded “Rathindra Puraskar for 1998” by the Visva-Bharati in 1999. 31. SWITZERLAND OMEGA Award of Excellence for Lifetime Achievement : 2000 Awarded “OMEGA Award of Excellence for Lifetime Achievement” in 2000. 32. ITALY Award of the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Senate : 2000 Awarded “The Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Senate” in 2000. 33. JORDAN King Hussein Humanitarian Leadership Award : 2000 Awarded "King Hussein Humanitarian Leadership Award" by the King Hussein Foundation in 2000. 34. BANGLADESH "IDEB Gold Medal" Award : 2000 Awarded IDEB Gold Medal Award by the Institute of Diploma Engineers in 2000. 35. ITALY "Artusi" Prize : 2001 Awarded "Artusi" prize by Comune di Forlimpopoli in 2001. 36. JAPAN Grand Prize of the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize : 2001 Awarded "Grand Prize of the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize " by the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize Committee in 2001. 37. VIETNAM Ho Chi Minh Award : 2001 Awarded “Ho Chi Minh Award” by the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples’ Committee in 2001. 38. SPAIN International Cooperation Prize Caja de Granada : 2001 Awarded “International Cooperation Prize Caja de Granada” Caja de Ahorros de Granada in 2001. 39. SPAIN “NAVARRA” International Aid Award : 2001 “NAVARRA” International Aid Award by the Autonomous Government of Navarra together with Caja Laboral (Savings Bank) in 2001. 40. U.S.A Mahatma Gandhi Award :2002 Awarded “Mahatma Gandhi Award” by the M.K Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, in 2002. 41. U.K. World Technology Network Award 2003 Awarded "World Technology Network Award 2003" for Finance by the World Technology Network in 2003. 42. SWEDEN Volvo Environment Prize 2003 Awarded "Volvo Environment Prize 2003" by the Volvo Environment Prize Foundation in 2003. 43. COLOMBIA National Merit Order Award Awarded "National Merit Order" by the Honorable President of the Republic of Colombia in 2003. 44. FRANCE The Medal of the Painter Oswaldo Guayasamin Award Awarded "The Medal of the Painter Oswaldo Guayasamin" by the UNESCO in 2003. 45. SPAIN Telecinco Award : 2004 Awarded "Telecinco Award for Better Path Towards Solidarity" by the Spanish TV Netwark - Channel 5 in 2004. 46. ITALY City of Orvieto Award : 2004 Awarded "City of Orvieto Award" by the Municipality of Orvieto in 2004. 47. U.S.A The Economist Innovation Award : 2004 Awarded "The Economist Award for Social and Economic Innovation" by The Economist in 2004. 48. U.S.A. World Affairs Council Award : 2004 Awarded "World Affairs Council Award for Extra-ordinary Contribution to Social Change" by the World Affairs Council of Northern California in 2004. 49. U.S.A. Leadership in Social Entrepreneurship Award Awarded "Leadership in Social Entrepreneurship Award" by Fuqua School of Business of Duke University, U.S.A. in 2004. 50. ITALY Premio Galileo 2000 - Special Prize for Peace : 2004 Awarded "Premio Galileo 2000 - Special Prize for Peace" by Ina Assitalia Fireuze in 2004. 51. JAPAN Nikkei Asia Prize : 2004 Awarded "Nikkei Asia Prize for Regional Growth" by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc. (Nikkei) in 2004. 52. SPAIN Golden Cross of the Civil Order of the Social Solidarity : 2005 Awarded "Golden Cross of the Civil Order of the Social Solidarity" by the Spanish Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in May, 2005. 53. U.S.A. Freedom Award : 2005 Awarded "Freedom Award" by the America's Freedom Foundation, Provo, Utah, U.S.A. in July, 2005. 54. BANGLADESH Bangladesh Computer Society Gold Medal : 2005 Awarded "Bangladesh Computer Society Gold Medal" by the Bangladesh Computer Society, Bangladesh in July, 2005. 55. ITALY Prize Il Ponte : 2005 Awarded " Prize Il Ponte " by the Fondazione Europea Guido Venosta, Italy in November, 2005. 56. SPAIN Foundation of Justice : 2005 Awarded "Foundation of Justice 2005" by the Foundation of Justice, Valencia, Spain in January, 2006. 57. U.S.A Harvard University, Neustadt Award : 2006 Awarded "Neustadt Award" by Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, U.S.A. in May, 2006. 58. U.S.A Global Citizen of the Year Award: 2006 Awarded "Global Citizen of the Year Award" by Patel Foundation for Global understanding, Tampa, Florida, U.S.A in May, 2006. 59. NETHERLAND Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom Award: 2006 Awarded "Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom Award" by Roosevelt Institute, Middleburg, Province of New Zeeland, The Netherlands in May, 2006. 60. SWITZERLAND ITU World Information Society Award: 2006 Awarded "ITU World Information Society Award" by International Telecommunication Union, Geneva, Switzerland in May, 2006. 61. KOREA Seoul Peace Prize : 2006 Awarded "Seoul Peace Prize 2006" by Seoul Peace Prize Cultural Foundation, Seoul, Korea in October, 2006. 62. SPAIN Convivencia (Good Fellowship) of Ceuta Award : 2006 Awarded "Convivencia (Good Fellowship) of Ceuta 2006" by Fundacion Premio Convivencia, Ceuta, Spain in October, 2006. 63. Norway Nobel Peace Prize : 2006 Awarded "Nobel Peace Prize 2006" in October, 2006. 64. INDIA Disaster Mitigation Award : 2006 Awarded "Disaster Mitigation Award 2006" by FIRST INDIA Disaster Management Congress 2006, Delhi, India in November, 2006. 65. INDIA Shera Bangalee :2006 Awarded "SHERA BANGALEE 2006" by ETV, India in February, 2007. 66. U.S.A Global Trailblazer Award : 2007 Awarded "Global Trailblazer Award 2007" by the Vital Voices, Washington DC, USA in March, 2007. 67. U.S.A ABICC Award For Leadership In Global Trade : 2007 Awarded "ABICC Award For Leadership in Global Trade 2007" by ABICC, Miami, USA in March, 2007. 68. U.S.A Social Entrepreneur Award : 2007 Awarded "Social Entrepreneur Award 2007" by the Geoffrey Palmer Center for Social Entrepreneurship and the Law, Pepperdine School of Law, USA in January, 2007. 69. U.S.A Global Entrepreneurship Leader Award : 2007 Awarded "Global Entrepreneurship Leader Award 2007" by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, USA in April, 2007. 70. SPAIN RED CROSS Gold Medal : 2007 Awarded "Red Cross Gold Medal 2007" by the Red Cross Society, Spain in 2007. 71. INDIA Rabindra Nath Tagore Birth Centenary Plaque : 2007 Awarded "Rabindra Nath Tagore Birth Centenary Plaque 2007" by the Asiatic Society, Kolkata, India in May, 2007. 72. NETHERLAND EFR-Business Week Award : 2007 Awarded "EFR-Business Week Award 2007" by the University of Rotterdam, The Netherlands in May 2007. 73. U.S.A. Nichols-Chancellor’s Medal : 2007 Awarded "Nichols-Chancellor’s Medal" by the Vanderbilt University, U.S.A. in May, 2007. 74. GERMANY Vision Award : 2007 : Awarded "Vision Award 2007" by the Global Economic Network, Berlin, Germany in June, 2007. 75. U.S.A BAFI Global Achievement Award : 2007 Awarded "BAFI Global Achievement Award 2007" by the Bangladesh-American Foundation Inc., U.S.A in July, 2007. Honorary Degrees Received by Professor Muhammad Yunus : 1. U.K. Awarded the Degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, by the University of East Anglia, U.K., in 1992. 2. U.S.A. Awarded the Degree of Doctor of Humanities by the Oberlin College, U.S.A. in 1993. 3. CANADA Awarded the degree of Doctor of Law, honoris causa, by the University of Toronto, Canada in 1995. 4. U.S.A. Awarded the degree of Doctor of Law by the Haverford College, U.S.A. in May, 1996. 5. U.K. Awarded the degree of Doctor of Law by the Warwick University, U.K. in July, 1996. 6. U.S.A. Awarded the degree of Doctor of Public Service by the Saint Xaviers' University, U.S.A. in May, 1997. 7. U.S.A. Awarded the degree of Doctor of Civil Law, Honoris Causa by the University of the South, U.S.A. in January, 1998. 8. BELGIUM Awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Cause by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium in February, 1998. 9. U.S.A. Awarded the degree of Doctor of Social Science, honoris causa by the Yale University, U.S.A. in May, 1998. 10. U.S.A. Awarded the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa by the Brigham Young University, U.S.A. in August, 1998. 11. AUSTRALIA Awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science in Economics by the University of Sydney, Australia in November, 1998. 12. AUSTRALIA Awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of the University by the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia in February, 2000. 13. ITALY Awarded the honorary degree of Doctor in Economics and Business (Laurea Honoris Causa) by the University of Turin, Turin, Italy in October, 2000. 14. U.S.A. Awarded the degree of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa by the Colgate University, Hamilton, U.S.A. in May 2002. 15. BELGIUM Awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University Catholique of Louvain in February, 2003. 16. ARGENTINA Awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universitad Nacional De Cuyo in April, 2003. 17. SOUTH AFRICA Awarded the degree of Doctor of Economics, honoris Causa by the University of Natal in December 2003. 18. INDIA Awarded the Degree of Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa by the Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswayvidyalaya, India in February, 2004. 19. THAILAND Awarded the degree of Doctor of Technology, Honoris Causa by the Asian Institute of Technology in August, 2004. 20. ITALY Awarded the degree of Doctor in Business Economics, Honoris Causa by the University of Florence in September, 2004. 21. ITALY Awarded the honorary degree of Doctor in Pedagogyst by the University of Bologna in October, 2004. 22. SPAIN Awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universidad Complutense, Madrid in October, 2004. 23. SOUTH AFRICA Awarded the Honorary Doctorate Degree in Economics by the University of Venda, South Africa in May, 2006. 24. LEBANON Awarded the Doctor of Humane Letters by the American University of Beirut, Lebanon in June, 2006. 25. SPAIN Awarded the Doctor of Honoris Causa by the University of Alicante in Valencia, Spain in June, 2006. 26. SPAIN Awarded the Doctor of Honoris Causa by the University of Valencia, in Valencia, Spain in June, 2006. 27. SPAIN Awarded the Doctor of Honoris Causa by the University of Jaume I in Valencia, Spain in June, 2006. 28. BANGLADESH Awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh in February, 2007. 29. JAPAN Awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities by the Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan in July, 2007. Special Honour : 1. PHILIPPINES Legislature of Negros Occidental, a province of the Philippines, passed a resolution awarding the status of "Adopted Son of Negros Occidental" for the contribution made to the poorest of the poor of the province, in 1992. 2. BANGLADESH Chosen by The Daily Star, a daily newspaper of Bangladesh, as the "Man of the Year 1994". 3. U.S.A. Was Chosen as the" Person of the Week" Professor Muhammad Yunus was chosen as the "Person of the Week" by American TV ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings on September 15, 1995 at the conclusion of the World Summit on Women held in Beijing. This is how Peter Jennings announced the news : "Finally this evening, our Person of the Week. As we reported elsewhere in this broadcast, the International Women’s Conference in China is now over. And the women there, from many parts of the world, will go home and try to inspire others to translate all the talking into action which will benefit women. On this final day of the women’s conference, we choose a man. He was on the agenda of the women’s conference because he truly understands the value of women." 4. HONG KONG The ASIAWEEK, a weekly international news magazine has selected as one of the "Twenty Great Asians (1975 1995)". 5. INDIA The Ananda Bazar Patrika a daily leading newspaper of India has selected as one of the “Ten Great Bangalees of the century" (1900-1999). 6. HONG KONG The ASIAWEEK, a weekly international news magazine has selected as one of the “Asians of the Century (1900-1999). 7. U.S.A The U.S. NEWS a weekly leading news-magazine of U.S.A. has selected as one of the 20 Heroes in the world in 2001. 8. U.S.A Appointed as an International Goodwill Ambassador for UNAIDS by the United Nations in June, 2002. 9. BANGLADESH Elected as a Fellow of the Society by the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh in September, 2003. 10. U.S.A PBS Documentary : The 25 Most Influential Business Persons of the Past 25 Years Professor Yunus was chosen by Wharton School of Business for PBS documentary, as one of "The 25 Most Influential Business Persons of the Past 25 Years" Among others were : Bill Gates, George Soros, Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Warren Buffertt, Michael Dell, Alan Greenspan, Lee Lacocca, Charles Schwab, Frederick Smith, and Sam Walton. PBS aired the programme on January 19, 2004, in their "Nightly Business News". 11. U.S.A. Profiled in Discovery Channel In 2004, TV Cable Channel Discovery produced an autobiography documentary film series titled "Crossings". In each episode it featured "one individual who made significant contribution to society as a result of certain experiences in life." Twelve Asians were profiled in this series. Professor Muhammad Yunus was one of them. He was the only one from the South Asian countries. Among others were : Chinese actress-director Joan Chan, international action movie star Jackie Chan, Thai elephant keeper Saudia Shawalla, and Malaysian cartoonist Datuk Laat. 12. FRANCE Inducted as a Member of the Legion d'Houneur by President Chirac of France in May, 2004. 13. BELGIUM Appointed as a Special Advisor to Hon'ble Mr. Louis Michel, E.U. Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid in March 2005. 14. FRANCE Awarded "Professeur Honoris Causa" by the most prestigious business school of France, HEC, in October, 2005. 15. TURKEY Addressed the "Members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly" at the invitation of the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly Mr. Bulent ARINC, on May 15, 2006. 16. COLOMBIA Received the "Key of Bogota City" from the Mayor of Bogota City, the capital of Columbia in October, 2006. 17. COLOMBIA Addressed Upper House of Parliament (Senate) and formal conferment of the title of "Knight", Colombia in October, 2006. 18. CHINA Appointed as "Honorary Professor" by Peking University, China on October, 2006. 19. HONG KONG "TIME" a weekly International news-magazine has selected as an "ASIAN HERO" of their "60 Years of ASIAN HEROS" issue in November, 2006. 20. USA MSN chosen as one of "Ten Most Influential Men of 2006" in their MSN LIFESTYLE : MEN category in December, 2006. 21. KOREA Selected as a "Distinguished Fellow" of the Ewha Academy for Advanced Studies, EWHA WOMENS UNIVERSITY, Seoul, Korea in March, 2007. 22. BAHRAIN Conferred the highest honour "Medal of the First Order of Merit" by the Kingdom of Bahrain in February, 2007. 23. U.S.A. “Business Week” a weekly international news magazine has selected as one of the “Greatest Entrepreneurs of All Time” in July, 2007. Awards Received by Grameen Bank 1. SWITZERLAND Aga Khan Award For Architecture : 1989 Awarded Aga Khan Award For Architecture, 1989 by Geneva based Aga Khan Foundation for designing and operating Grameen Bank Housing Programme for the poor, which helped poor members of Grameen Bank to construct 60,000 housing units by 1989, each costing on an average $ 300. 2. BELGIUM King Baudouin International Development Prize : 1993 Awarded "The King Baudouin International Development Prize 1992" for its recognition of the role of women in the process of development and the novelty of a financial credit system contributing to the improvement of the social and material condition of women and their families in rural areas. 3. BANGLADESH Independence Day Award : 1994 Awarded Independence Day Award for outstanding contribution to Rural Development. 4. MALAYSIA Tun Abdul Razak Award : 1994 Awarded the Independence Day Award, 1987, by the President for the outstanding contribution in rural development. This is the highest civilian national award of Bangladesh. 5. UNITED KINGDOM World Habitat Award : 1997 Awarded “World Habitat Award : 1997” by Building and Social Housing Foundation. 6. INDIA Gandhi Peace Prize : 2000 Awarded "Gandhi Peace Prize :2000" by Government of India. 7. U.S.A. Petersberg Prize : 2004 Awarded "Petersberg Prize 2004" by the Development Gateway Foundation, U.S.A. in 2004. 8. Norway Nobel Peace Prize : 2006 Awarded "Nobel Peace Prize 2006" in October, 2006. Copyright © 2006 MuhammadYunus.ORG | All Rights Reserved Designed by info@muhammadyunus.org Posted by: Mimmy Duhaylungsod