I remember well the worn-out look in the boy’s eyes when he approached and asked, in a hushed yet clear tone, “Sir, I really need a job. Can you please help me? Your company?”
This article was posted on IRC International Water and Sanitation Center blog by Joep Verhagen, Manager, South Asia & Latin America Team, IRC.
Sitting opposite to me is Babar Kabir – Senior Director at BRAC and programme director of the BRAC WASH programme.
The number of people worldwide reached by microfinance institutions (MFIs) fell in 2011, the first time in 13 years, according to the Microcredit Summit Campaign’s (MSC) brand new report.
This post originally appeared on the HBR Blog Network as part of a special collection on Scaling Social Impact.
Forty years ago, British economist E.F. Schumacher, one of the fathers of the Green movement, declared that “small is beautiful” and called for “a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful.” The retort from mainstream economists was swift and scathing: “Small is stupid.” Without economies of scale, they argued, developing societies would never develop the efficiencies needed to modernize.
Last year, independent researchers from London School of Economics, University College London, and the World Bank completed a two-year impact assessment of a girls’ empowerment program in Uganda, Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA), one of the components of a partnership between BRAC and The MasterCard Foundation.
If you want to help spur the economy and improve people’s lives over the long term in a place like Uganda – the youngest country on earth, with a median age of 14 – then you have to talk and listen to young people like Brenda Masika. That’s one of the key lessons of BRAC’s partnership with The MasterCard Foundation, which has enabled a speedy scale-up in a country facing a massive youth bulge.
Syed Hashemi, head of the BRAC Development Institute at BRAC University, talks about BRAC’s “safety net for the poor” – the ultra poor program – on the Microsave podcast. Check out the video below.
Yesterday, in honor of BRAC’s work with women all over the world, BRAC USA president and CEO Susan Davis was listed in Fast Company’s League of Extraordinary Women. The award focuses on BRAC’s partnership with the MasterCard Foundation in Uganda.
BRAC’s agriculture and food security programme has taken the initiative to launch D.light Design’s solar products in Bangladesh, aiming to provide power sources for the marginalised people who do not have access to the national power grid.
Change is inevitable; rather it is a much needed process for the benefit and progress of any organization. With such intentions of change Dr. Jaap M. De Heer, VU University Amsterdam, presented his study on the various aspects of an organization which, when integrated together, initiate a wholesome change process.
The following is an excerpt from and article by Josh Kwan published in the Spring 2012 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review.First, the good news. More children in places of poverty are attending school than ever before.2 Thanks to a major push by governments and donors, many countries have built a slew of schools
The following was originally posted by BRAC USA President and CEO Susan Davis on the World Education blog.With the Education for All goals and the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015 on our minds, perhaps it’s time to start thinking about measurements of educational quality, rather than a simple push for increased student enrollment in developing countries.