MUHAMMAD YUNUS

 

MUHAMMAD YUNUS (b. 1940)

Economist and Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus has become internationally renowned for his revolutionary system of micro-credit (small loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans) that has helped millions to escape poverty. Professor Muhammad Yunus established the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 1983, fueled by the belief that credit is a fundamental human right. His objective was to help poor people escape from poverty by providing loans on terms suitable to them and by teaching them a few sound financial principles so they could help themselves.

Born in the seaport city of Chittagong, Bangladesh, Yunus’ life is motivated by his vision of a world without poverty.

Professor Yunus studied at Dhaka University in Bangladesh, then received a Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt in 1969 and the following year became an assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University.

He returned to Chittagong University as head of the economics department in 1972 and began studying the economic aspects of poverty in 1974 as famine swept through Bangladesh. Yunus even asked students to assist farmers in the fields, but he concluded that agricultural training alone would not benefit the large population of landless poor who had no assets.

It began in 1976, when he saw village basket weavers living in abject poverty despite their skill. Considered poor credit risks, the artisans were forced to borrow money at high interest rates to purchase bamboo and made no profit after repaying moneylenders. From his own pocket, Yunus made a loan to a group of women who repaid the funds and, for the first time, made a small profit. Yunus realized that by means of small loans and financial services, he could help the poor free themselves from poverty.

What the poor needed, he believed, was access to money that would help them build small businesses; traditional moneylenders charged usurious interest.

In 1976 Yunus began a program of “micro” loans, a credit system designed to meet the needs of the poor in Bangladesh. Borrowers, whose loans may be little more than $25, join lending groups. Support from group members (in addition to peer pressure) coaxes borrowers to repay their loans.

In 1983, he established the Grameen (Village) Bank, founded on his conviction that credit is a fundamental human right. Through the last quarter of a century, the bank has stood as the flagship of a 100-country network of similar institutions, enabling millions to escape poverty through individual economic empowerment.

Professor Yunus is a member of the board of the United Nations Foundation and has received numerous international awards for his humanitarian endeavors, including the Mohamed Shabdeen Award for Science (1993), Sri Lanka; Humanitarian Award (1993), CARE, USA; World Food Prize (1994), World Food Prize Foundation, USA; lndependence Day Award (1987), Bangladesh’s highest award; King Hussein Humanitarian Leadership Award (2000), King Hussien Foundation, Jordan; Volvo Environment Prize (2003), Volvo Environment Prize Foundation, Sweden; Nikkei Asia Prize for Regional Growth (2004), Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan; Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom Award (2006), Roosevelt Institute of The Netherlands; and the Seoul Peace Prize (2006), Seoul Peace Prize Cultural Foundation, Seoul, Korea, U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009). He is a member of the board of the United Nations Foundation.

Yunus wrote several books, including Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs (2010) and A World of Three Zeroes: The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Net Carbon Emissions (2017). (https://www.humanrights.com/voices-for-human-rights/muhammad-yunus.html; https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muhammad-Yunus; https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2006/yunus/biographical/)