ON NOBLE CAUSES

HIP, HIP...

The Nobel Prizes for 2006 were given out this past week. 

If like me. you missed taking in all the details, the New York Times has a good round-up on them all that makes for good Sunday reading.

There are some incredible stories of achievement and progress here. 

The one that gets me the most excited, is the sixth and final Nobel awarded last week. 

It's an individual and  movement that I've followed for a long time. 

Not to mention that it's the one Nobel Peace Prize in a number of years, that makes me say, "but of course", upon first hearing of the award.  The last two times were in 1990 and 1993.

I'll let the NY Times piece explain:

"Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their pioneering use of tiny, seemingly insignificant loans -- microcredit -- to lift millions out of poverty.

Through Yunus's efforts and those of the bank he founded, poor people around the world, especially women, have been able to buy cows, a few chickens or the cell phone they desperately needed to get ahead..."

The piece outlines how Mr. Yunus came up with the idea for microloans, generally less than $200, in Bangladesh in 1974.  It then traces how it's been adopted for many developing economies.  These excerpts from the article summarize the progress so far:

In the years since, the bank says it has lent $5.72 billion to more than 6 million Bangladeshis...

Today, the bank claims to have 6.6 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom are women, and provides services in more than 70,000 villages in Bangladesh. Its model of micro-financing has inspired similar efforts around the world...

Worldwide, microcredit financing is estimated to have helped some 17 million people.

With over billions of people in big swathes of the "developing" world, the idea has much more promise to fulfill.  Especially in terms of empowering women, who face major cultural, political and economic handicaps vis a vis men in most of these countries.

This is reflected in the recipient's response quoted in the Times:

One of Yunus' aides, Dipal Barua, said the award was an ''honor for millions of poor women who have made this possible.'

So it's great to see the person behind the idea and initial execution recognized in this manner. 

Especially since the solution came not from politicians in these countries, who often promise a lot and deliver little, but from a market-driven, private sector solution. 

A recommended read for sure. 

Comments

[Yaser Anwar]

"Micro-credit has proved to be an important liberating force in societies where women in particular have to struggle against repressive social and economic conditions. Economic growth and political democracy can not achieve their full potential unless the female half of humanity participates on an equal footing with the male."

Source: Nobel Prize Committee

Today, more than 250 institutions in nearly 100 countries operate micro-credit programs based on the Grameen Bank model, while thousands of other micro-credit programs have emulated, adapted or been inspired by the Grameen Bank.

Truly remarkable.

[Ken Liffiton @ Grameen Foundation]

Thanks for following the growth of microfinance over the years, and for posting the great news and recognition of Dr. Yunus' decades of hard work. The Nobel Prize is a huge boost not just for Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, but for microfinance in general. At Grameen Foundation, we support many of the microfinance programs around the world that use Grameen Bank's methods, and technology plays a key role in our work. It's exciting to see growing world support for microfinance, which will ultimately support more rapid expansion of programs to fill what is still a huge unmet need for financial services among the poor.