In this highly partisan political season, where economic calamity is deemed inevitable if the wrong party is elected, “The Coming Prosperity” is a refreshing new entrant on the bookshelf. It is a book at odds with political rhetoric, but squares nicely with emerging global trends.
Somehow I managed to get from Rwanda to Zambia over the last week by a combination of boda, matatu, feet, bus, hitchhiking, and ferry, which is a subject for another entry – but now I finally have time to write a bit about how I spent most of my three weeks in Uganda.
“This meeting is a great opportunity to see what’s really going on. In Sri Lanka, right now we only have microfinance. I had no idea what the health, education, and WASH [Water, sanitation, and hygiene] programs would be like. Reading on the website is nothing like coming here and really being able to see it.”
The world’s largest antipoverty organization advocates a market-oriented approach to job creation and poverty alleviation, putting poor borrowers on a path to prosperity by giving them a “business in box.”
As the 2015 deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approaches, it is imperative to reflect on the developments of participating nations in the ten years since the goals were established.
There’s a new book on our shelf called Give Smart: Philanthropy that Gets Results by Thomas J. Tierney, co-founder of the nonprofit consulting firm The Bridgespan Group, and Joel L. Fleishman, professor of law and public policy at Duke University. By addressing six key questions, the authors provide valuable advice on how to make a positive social impact through effective investments in philanthropy. The book argues that philanthropy is most impactful when investors carefully select a handful of organizations to support. The authors review a number of organizations that have a history of making smart investments, many of which are key BRAC supporters. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Omidyar Network are two such examples. Through “mission related investing,” these organizations have been essential partners in helping BRAC alleviate poverty and empower communities in situations of poverty, illiteracy, disease and social injustice.
So come celebrate BRAC’s 39 years of giving women the tools to be agents of change in their own lives and the lives of their families and communities.
Almost 21 million people are now reported as having been directly affected by the devastating floods in Pakistan. With 23 out of 94 BRAC Pakistan’s microfinance branches affected by the flooding, BRAC is close to the people and communities that have been suffering as the disaster began to unfold in July.
Having recently returned from Afghanistan, I was encouraged to read a front-page article in last Sunday’s New York Times about Greg Mortenson being the “Unlikely Tutor Giving [US] Military Afghan Advice.”We hope that this is the beginning of more press coverage over the work being done by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Afghanistan.BRAC is one such organization, and we have been working in Afghanistan since 2002. Many Afghan refugees began returning to their war-torn country that year. To BRAC’s founders, such post-conflict humanitarian crisis was similar to what they lived through in Bangladesh after the Bangladesh War. It was in such post-war environment that BRAC was first founded in 1972, not unlike how BRAC Afghanistan was started thirty years later.
Recently, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) interviewed BRAC Founder and Chairperson Fazle Hasan Abed about BRAC’s work in Bangladesh and how we are using what we have learned as we establish and scale up programs throughout Africa and Asia.Below is an excerpt from the interview: