Insights · October 13th, 2006
Today was a great day for creating preferred futures. Muhammad Yunus, Founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh was awarded the annual Nobel Peace Prize, for his pioneering of the concept of micro-loans. Yunus, now age 66, established the Bank in 1976, to lend small amounts of seed money to the poorest women in Bangladesh, enabling them to begin businesses. In selecting Yunus, the Nobel Committee noted, “Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Microcredit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights.”
In my book, Turning the Future Into Revenue, when I focused on the great divide in income plaguing the world, and actually getting worse as a few wealthy grow ever richer (the Forbes 400 this year consisted only of multi-billionaires), I discussed microcredit as one successful strategy for combating poverty. I also pointed to a ground breaking new book by C.K. Prahalad, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, in which he outlines a program for economic development for the poorest of the poor, by redefining the problem and then creating services and products that will serve the two billion people who survive on $2 a day.
It was a great day for Grameen Bank, Bangladesh, and creating a better future.
