Muhammad Yunus

মুহাম্মদ ইউনূস Muhammad Yunus
Born
June 28 1940 Chittagong, Bangladesh
Died

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." 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.

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 Sofia 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.

In 1967 while Yunus attended Vanderbilt University, he met Vera Forostenko, a student of Russian literature at Vanderbilt University and daughter of Russian immigrants to Trenton,New Jersey, USA. They were married in 1970. Yunus's marriage with Vera ended in 1977 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 later married Afrozi Yunus, who was then a researcher in physics at Manchester University. She was later appointed as a professor of physics at Jahangirnagar University. Their daughter Deena Afroz Yunus was born in 1986. 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.

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.

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 the Bureau of Economics. There he worked as research assistant to the economical researches of Professor Nurul Islam and Rehman Sobhan. Later he was appointed as a lecturer in economics in Chittagong College in 1961. He was offered a a Fulbright scholarship in 1965 to study in the United States. He obtained his Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt University in the United States in 1969. From 1969 to 1972, Yunus was an assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN.

Yunus and Bangladesh Liberation War

When the Liberation War of Bangladesh started in 1971 Yunus joined in the activities of raising support for the liberation war. With other Bangladeshis living in the United States, he founded the Bangladesh League of America . He also published the Bangladesh Newsletter from his home in Nashville. After Bangladesh won the war of independence on December, 16, 1971, Yunus decided to move back to participate in the work of nation building. On his return he was appointed to the government's Planning Commission headed by Nurul Islam. He found the job boring and resigned to join Chittagong University as head of the Economics department .

Yunus and Rural Development

Yunus first got involved in fighting poverty after observing the disastrous effects of the famine of 1974. During this time, he established a rural economic program as a research project. In 1975, he developed a Nabajug (New Era) Tebhaga Khamar (three share farm) which the government adopted as the Packaged Input Programme. In order to make the project more effective, Yunus and his associates proposed another project called 'Gram Sarkar' (the village government). The government adopted it in 1980, but the succeeding regime later lifted it away.

Founding of the Grameen Bank

In 1976 during his visits to the poorest households in village of Jobra near the university 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 42 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. He quickly realized that an institution needed to be created to lend to those who had nothing. However, traditional banks were not interested in making tiny loans at more reasonable interest rates to poor people, who were considered repayment risks..

In December of 1976 Yunus finally succeeded in securing a loan from the government Janata Bank to lend it to the poor in Jobra. The institution continued to operate by securing loans from other banks for its projects. By 1982, the bank had 28,000 members. On October 1, 1983 the pilot project began operations as a full-fledged bank and was renamed 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. 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. For his work with the Grameen Bank, Yunus was named an Ashoka: Innovators for the Public Global Academy Member in 2001.

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."

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. However, after much contemplation, Dr. Yunus has decided not to go forward with his political ambitions. He argued that while he received letters of support from people of many walks in life, many, including politicians, were not ready to publicly pledge support due to the precarious political situation of Bangladesh.Yunus writes letter to all

Awards

1978 — President's Award, Bangladesh 1984 — Ramon Magsaysay Award, Philippines 1985 — Bangladesh Bank Award, Bangladesh 1987 — Shwadhinota Dibosh Puroshkar (Independence Day Award), Bangladesh 1989 — Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Switzerland 1993 — CARE Humanitarian Award 1994 — Winner of the World Food Prize 1995 — Winner of the Max Schmidheiny Freedom Prize 1996 — Winner of the UNESCO Simón Bolívar Prize 1997 — Received award from Strømme Foundation, Norway

1998 — Received Indira Gandhi Prize 1998 — Received Prince of Asturias Award 1998 — Winner of the Sydney Peace Prize 2001 — Named Ashoka Global Academy Member 2004 — Winner of The Economist newspaper's Prize for social and economic innovation. 2006 — Mother Teresa Award instituted by the Mother Teresa International and Millennium Award Committee (MTIMAC), Kolkata, India. 2006 - "Freedom from want" Award, one of the Four Freedom Awards; Roosevelt Study Centre. 2006 — 8th Seoul Peace Prize 2006 — Nobel Peace Prize, shared with Grameen Bank 2007 - Vanderbilt University Nichol's Chancellor Award And 47 others, for a total of 62.

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 as well as in his autobiography My Life. 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."

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

Other Grameen initiatives

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.

Political activity

Yunus considered entering politics in late 2006.

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."^[2] In the letter, he called on everyone to briefly outline how he should go about the task and how they can contribute to it.^[3]

Yunus finally announced the foundation of a new party called Citizens' Power (Nagorik Shakti) on February 18, 2007.^[4] He said, however, that this was not the final decision on the name of the party, and that the final decision would be taken by the end of February 2007.^[5] His political party was intended to be totally different from traditional ones and democratic from the grassroots level.

There was speculation that the army supported a move by Yunus into politics. On May 3, however, Yunus said that he had decided to abandon his political plans following a meeting with the head of the interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed.

See also

• Microfinance
• Grameen Bank
• Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
• Balochistan

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Yunus's autobiography
• The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank, by David Bornstein (Oxford University Press, reissued with a new foreword 2006)
• PBS Biography An article on Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank.
• A short biography
• Awardee Profile of Max Schmidheiny Freedom Price
• Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the battle against world poverty, by Muhammad Yunus (Public Affairs, New York, 1997)
• A Nobel Peace Prize for Neoliberalism? http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn10202006.html

External links

• Grameen Bank - Grameen Bank's Official Web Site
• MuhammadYunus.org - Website of Muhammad Yunus
• Campaign website - 2007 campaign to elect Yunus prime minister of Bangladesh
• Muhammad Yunus Bio - The World Food Prize
• Muhammad Yunus Receives the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize - A Photo Essay by Scott London
• World Banker to the Poor - A BBC Profile
• Microcredit Missionary - A BusinessWeek Profile
• The Birth of Micro Credit - CNN Business Article
• Audio Interview with Muhammad Yunus - By Wolfgang Blau (a.k.a. Harrer) and Alysa Selene, ZDF Germany
• Nobel laureate drops party hopes BBC May 4, 2007

Videos

• A Collection of Video Documentaries about Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank
• "Pennies A Day" video featuring Muhammad Yunus
• International Forum Social Entrepreneurship Award: Honoring Muhammad Yunus — video]

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