Staff blog

March 17, 2014

M&Ms and slow ideas, or what a simple check can do

I was psyched to read about David Lee Roth and his famous brown M&Ms in Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto over the weekend. It's a favorite story of mine, as I've often considered it a metaphor for Great and Meaningful Things.
February 13, 2014

“I am one of one billion and I am rising for justice”

With the progress we are making in development, one would think that violence against women would by now be a thing of the past. On the contrary, it is proving to be an epidemic. One in three women will experience violence during her life simply because she’s female – that amounts to one billion women in the world. One Billion Rising is a global campaign, created by American playwright and feminist Eve Ensler, to call for an end to violence against women and girls.
December 3, 2013

Poultry powered progress for the poor

In the village of Waterloo, two hours outside of central Freetown, Sierra Leone, I recently met with poultry rearers, participating in BRAC’s backyard poultry and kitchen garden project in partnership with the UK aid organization, DFID.
November 20, 2013

World Toilet Day at the UN

Yesterday, November 19, 2013, BRAC USA President Susan Davis attended the World Toilet Day events at the United Nations headquarters along with the head of BRAC’s Disaster, Environment, and Climate program, Tanzeba Ambereen Huq. Ms. Huq delivered remarks regarding BRAC’s Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene program (WASH).
November 20, 2013

The emotional weapon facing Bangladeshi children

Universal discussions on violence often centre on physical abuse and physical torture, but the definition of violence has also expanded to include emotional abuse, which can lead to long-term cognitive disorders. In Bangladesh, reprimanding children – from toddlers to young adults – by beating them has long been socially acceptable. Though it is not abnormal to hear stories of guardians or teachers still beating their wards, there has been a significant decline in the number of people doing so.
October 9, 2013

Bringing justice into the global development agenda

To help make the case for including justice and the rule of law as a goal in the post-2015 global development agenda, I was in New York from 24 to 28 September to participate in a number of events. Of these, there were three major events which bear a special mention.
September 24, 2013

Mobilise who? An opening thought for CGI 2013

The theme for this year's Clinton Global Initiative is "Mobilizing for Impact," focusing on mobilising the right entities, allowing them to reach their full potential for lasting and scalable success.
August 6, 2013

Let’s voice our support for legal empowerment, including property rights

There’s rising momentum in the world today for legal empowerment of the poor. There’s growing recognition that the law need to work for everyone, rich and poor, and that without full legal rights, including access to legal services, a legal identity and property rights, billions will be denied the opportunities they need to lift themselves out of poverty and end systems of discrimination and exploitation.
July 30, 2013

Innovation ecosystem in South Asia: A new interactive map

We live in an innovation obsessed world. Organisations across sectors have made innovating an explicit priority. Many are devising deliberate strategies to foster innovation. In 2012, BRAC, the world’s largest NGO, developed the Social Innovation Lab for this purpose. We step out from the researcher’s cubicle and explore innovations happening on the frontlines.
July 30, 2013

Why do we do good?

There's never been so many ways for so many people to come together and do some good. But why do we do good and how can we be sure the changes we seek are meaningful and lasting?
June 21, 2013

The transformative potential of the poor

Progress can go beyond "inclusive growth." The poor themselves can be relied upon to help make the world a better place for us all.
May 22, 2013

The world’s biggest family

One of the newest additions to BRAC's family worldwide tells her story of discovering what BRAC really is. Originally published at The Huffington Post.