Muhammad Yunus

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মুহাম্মদ ইউনূস
Muhammad Yunus
Born June 28, 1940
Flag of Bangladesh Chittagong, Bangladesh
Occupation Founder, Grameen Bank
Spouse Afrozi Yunus

Dr. Muhammad Yunus (Bengali: মুহাম্মদ ইউনুস, pronounced Muhammôd Iunus) (born June 28, 1940) is a Bangladeshi banker and economist. He is famous for his successful application of the concept of microcredit, the extension of small loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. Yunus is also the founder of Grameen Bank. In 2006, Yunus and the bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below."[1] Yunus himself has received several other international honors, including the ITU World Information Society Award, Ramon Magsaysay Award, the World Food Prize and the Sydney Peace Prize. He is the author of Banker to the Poor and a founding board member of Grameen Foundation. Yunus recently launched a political party in Bangladesh, Nagorik Shakti (Citizen Power), and is rumoured to be standing for political office.

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[edit] Childhood and family

Yunus was born in 1940 in the village of Bathua, in Hathazari, Chittagong, Bangladesh. His father's name is Hazi Dula Mia Shoudagar, and mother's name is Sufia Khatun. His early childhood years were spent in the village. In 1944, his family moved to the city of Chittagong, where his father had a jewelery business.

During the time Yunus attended Vanderbilt University, he met and later got married to Vera Forostenko, daughter of Russian immigrants to New Jersey, USA. Vera was a student of Russian literature at Vanderbilt University. However, Yunus's marriage with Vera ended within months of the birth of their baby girl, Monica Yunus, as Vera returned to New Jersey claiming that Bangladesh was not a good place to raise a baby. Yunus then married Afrozi Yunus, a professor of physics at Jahangirnagar University.His brothers are also active in academia. His brother Muhammad Ibrahim is a professor of physics at Dhaka University and the founder of The Center for Mass Education in Science (CMES), which brings science education to adolescent girls in villages. His younger brother Muhammad Jahangir is a popular television presenter.

[edit] Education and early career

He studied at his village school in the early years. When his family moved to Chittagong, he enrolled in the Lamabazar Primary School. Later, he studied at Chittagong Collegiate School and passed the matriculation examination, in which he secured the 16th position among 39,000 students in East Pakistan. During his school years, he was active in the Boy Scouts, and traveled to West Pakistan and India in 1952. In 1955, he attended the World Scouts Jamboree in Canada as part of the Pakistan contingent. On the way back, he traveled through Europe and Asia by road. Next, Yunus enrolled into Chittagong College where he was active in cultural activities and got awards for acting in dramas.[2]

In 1957, he enrolled in the department of economics at Dhaka University and completed his BA in 1960 and MA in 1961. Following his graduation, Yunus joined in the Bureau of Economics. There he worked as research assistant to the economical researches of Professor Nurul Islam and Rehman Sobhan.[3] Later he was appointed as a lecturer in economics in Chittagong College and joined there in 1961.[4] He obtained his Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt University in the United States in 1969 after getting a Fulbright scholarship. From 1969 to 1972, Yunus was an assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University before moving back to Bangladesh, where he joined Chittagong University as an economics professor.

Yunus first got involved in fighting poverty during the famine of 1974 in Bangladesh. He discovered that very small loans could make a disproportionate difference to a poor person. His first loan consisted of US$27 from his own pocket, which he lent to women in the village of Jobra — near Chittagong University — who made bamboo furniture. They had to take out usurious loans in order to buy bamboo. They then sold these items to the moneylenders to repay them. With a net profit of .50 Bangladeshi taka (.02 USD), the women were unable to support their families.[5] However, traditional banks were not interested in making tiny loans at more reasonable interest rates to poor people, who were considered repayment risks.[6]

During this time, he established a rural economic program as a research project. In 1974, he developed a Tebhaga Khamar (three share farm) which the government adopted as the Packaged Input Programme.[2] In order to make the project more effective, Yunus and his associates proposed another project called 'Gram Sarkar' (the village government).[7] The government adopted it in 1980, but the succeeding regime later lifted it away.

[edit] Nagorik Shakti

Recently, Prof. Yunus has declared that he will start his own political party named Nagorik Shakti (Citizens' Power). The name has not been finalized yet, but he stated this is the likely name. He wished to have candidates at all 300 seats of Bangladesh in the upcoming election.

[edit] Yunus and Bangladesh Liberation War

In 1970, on the way to getting his PhD, Yunus joined Middle Tennessee State University. In 1971, the Liberation War of Bangladesh started. Yunus joined in the activities of raising support for the liberation war. With other Bangladeshis living in the United States, he founded the Bangladesh Citizen's Committee. Then they started the Bangladesh Information Centre in New York. Later, he helped Bangladeshi officers working in the Pakistan Embassy in the United States to get themselves out from the embassy. He was also an active participant of the Bangladesh Defence League founded by Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan, which tried to supply arms and ammunitions to the 'Muktibahini (Freedom Fighters).[8]

[edit] Founding the Grameen Bank

Main article: Grameen Bank

In 1976, Yunus founded the Grameen Bank (Grameen means "of rural area", "of village") to make loans to poor Bangladeshis. The Grameen Bank has issued more than US$ 6 billion to 7 million borrowers. To ensure repayment, the bank uses a system of "solidarity groups". These small informal groups apply together for loans and its members act as co-guarantors of repayment and support one another's efforts at economic self-advancement.[9] As it has grown, the Grameen Bank has also developed other systems of alternate credit that serve the poor. In addition to microcredit, it offers education loans and housing loans as well as financing for fisheries and irrigation projects, venture capital, textiles, and other activities, along with other banking services such as savings.

The success of the Grameen model has inspired similar efforts throughout the developing world and even in industrialized nations, including the United States. The Grameen model of micro financing has been emulated in 23 countries. Many, but not all, microcredit projects also retain its emphasis on lending specifically to women. More than 96% of Grameen loans have gone to women, who suffer disproportionately from poverty and who are more likely than men to devote their earnings to their families.[10] For his work with the Grameen Bank, Yunus was named an Ashoka: Innovators for the Public Global Academy Member in 2001.[11]

[edit] Nobel prize

Muhammad Yunus was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Grameen Bank, for "their efforts to create economic and social development from below."[12] He is the first and so far only Bangladeshi to win the prestigious award. The award also marked a shift away from the conventions by awarding it to someone who worked to promote peace indirectly through economic upliftment of the masses.

The announcement read:

“ The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006, divided into two equal parts, to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank for their efforts to create economic and social development from below. Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Micro-credit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights. ”

Yunus advocated that by fixing poverty, you are also attacking a root cause of terrorism.[13]

“ We must address the root causes of terrorism to end it for all time, I believe putting resources into improving the lives of poor people is a better strategy than spending it on guns. ”

He made this comment at the official prize-giving ceremony held in Oslo, Norway on the 10th of December,2006 .

The 66-year-old economist said he would use part of his share of the $1.4 million award to create a company to make low-cost, high-nutrition food for the poor. The rest would go toward setting up an eye hospital for the poor in Bangladesh, he said. The food company, to be known as Social Business Enterprise, will sell food for a nominal price.

[edit] Other Grameen sectors

Grameen Phone — Pioneer of Telecommunication

The Grameen Phone telecommunication project has evolved to become Bangladesh's biggest private phone company. Grameen Phone is now the leading telecommunications service provider in the country with more than 10 million subscribers as of November 2006.[According to Grameen Phone official website]

Village Phone

The Gramer Phone (Village Phone) (পল্লি ফোন, polli fon) project is another brainchild of Dr. Yunus that aims to bring phone connectivity to the rural population of Bangladesh, and at the same time give entrepreneural opportunities to rural women. Village Phone works by the basic idea of providing small amount loans to rural women to buy cellular phones to set up "public call centers" at their homes. Income generated by the call centers is used to pay off the loans.

Grameen Star Education

This was a project where students could take courses on currently needed sectors; they could also use this as a MLM source. Grameen took this step to prevent foreign MLMs from rushing into Bangladesh.

Grameen Check

For the moral of self-dependence, Dr. Yunus started a trend to wear simple local clothes and opened a small section for clothing. He also always wears Grameen Check. Now, it is one of the most popular trends among all classes of people of Bangladesh, especially in the capital Dhaka. There are dozens of Grameen-based showrooms all over the country.

[edit] Awards

Additionally, Prof. Yunus has been awarded 27 honorary doctorate degrees (all but one a doctorate), and 15 special awards. The Grameen Bank website includes a List of Awards Received by Professor Muhammad Yunus.

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton was a vocal advocate for the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Muhammed Yunus. He expressed this in Rolling Stone magazine[18] as well as in his autobiography My Life.[19] In a speech given at University of California, Berkeley in 2002, President Clinton described Dr. Yunus as "a man who long ago should have won the Nobel Prize [and] I’ll keep saying that until they finally give it to him."[20]

Yunus was judged one among the ten most famous living Bengali personalities in a poll organized by Muktadhara New York.[citation needed]

[edit] Political activity

Yunus considered entering politics in late 2006[2]

On February 11, 2007, Yunus created a stir of interest among Bangladeshis living both abroad and in the country, after he wrote an open letter that was published in the Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Star. In his letter, he asked citizens for views on his plan to float a political party to establish political goodwill, proper leadership and good governance and build a new Bangladesh. He observed that the current political climate seeks to destroy the potential of the country and so without a comprehensive change there, it would never be possible to take the nation "to the height it deserves."[3] In the letter, he called on everyone to briefly outline how he should go about the task and how they can contribute to it.[4]

Yunus finally announced the foundation of a new party called Citizens' Power (Nagorik Shakti) on February 18, 2007.[5] He has however said that this is not the final decision on the name of the party, and that the final decision will be taken by the end of February 2007.[6] His political party is intended to be totally different from traditional ones. The proposed party will be democratic from the grassroots level.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006. The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 (2006-10-13). Retrieved on 2006-10-13.
  2. ^ a b
  3. ^ An interview of Dr. Muhammad Yunus conducted by Matiur Rahman, Editor, the daily Prothom Alo-a Bangladeshi daily news paper, written in Bangla
  4. ^ An interview of Dr. Muhammad Yunus conducted by Matiur Rahman, Editor, the daily Prothom Alo-a Bangladeshi daily news paper, written in Bangla
  5. ^ Banker to the Poor, p. 46-47
  6. ^ BBC report on Muhammad Yunus
  7. ^ Ramon Magsaysay Award Citation
  8. ^ A Bengali Interview of Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Daily Prothom Alo, October 14, 2006.
  9. ^ Ramon Magsaysay Award Citation
  10. ^ ABC online: Foreign Correspondent - Interview with Prof. Muhammad Yunus
  11. ^ http://www.ashoka.org/node/3798
  12. ^ The Norwegian Nobel Committee.
  13. ^ Terrorism comment
  14. ^ Dr. Muhammad Yunus, 1995. The Freedom Prize[1] from The Max Schmidheiny Foundation.
  15. ^ The Max Schmidheiny Foundation
  16. ^ http://www.stromme.org/?1=1 Help for SelfHelp Award
  17. ^ http://www.eu-cord.org/members/strommetxt.html
  18. ^ The birth of micro credit, CNN, March 29, 2001
  19. ^ Left Behind - By Bangladesh: Bangladeshi girls have higher rates of school attendance than Indian girls The Telegraph, October 2, 2005
  20. ^ President Clinton's Talk at Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, CA, USA on January 29, 2002

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Nobel Peace Prize: Laureates (2001—)
v • d • e

2001: UN, Annan | 2002: Carter | 2003: Ebadi | 2004: Maathai | 2005: IAEA, ElBaradei | 2006: Grameen Bank, Yunus
Persondata
NAME Yunus, Muhammad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Iunus, Muhammod (alternate transliteration); মুহাম্মদ ইউনুস (Bengali)
SHORT DESCRIPTION Economist and banker
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Chittagong, Bangladesh
DATE OF DEATH living
PLACE OF DEATH
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