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Dr. Mushtaque Chowdhury is the Vice Chairperson and advisor to the Chairperson and founder of BRAC. He is also a professor of Population and Family Health at the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University, New York. During 2009-2012, he served as a senior advisor and acting Managing Director of the Rockefeller Foundation, based in Bangkok, Thailand. He also worked as a MacArthur/Bell Fellow at Harvard University.
Dr. Chowdhury is one of the founding members of the two civil society watchdogs on education and health called Bangladesh Education Watch and Bangladesh Health Watch respectively. He is on the board or committees for several organizations and initiatives, including the Advisory Board of the South Asia Centre at London School of Economics, Lead Group for Scaling Up Nutrition Movement at United Nations and is the current chair of the Asia-Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resources for Health (AAAH). He is also the President of the Dhaka University Statistics Department Alumni Association (DUSDAA). Dr. Chowdhury was a coordinator of the UN Millennium Task Force on Child Health and Maternal Health, set up by the former Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, along with Professor Allan Rosenfield, Dean of the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University, New York.
Dr. Mushtaque had previously received the ‘Innovator of the Year 2006’ award from the Marriott Business School of Brigham Young University in the USA, the PESON oration medal from the Perinatal Society of Nepal in 2008 and Outstanding Leadership Award from Dhaka University Statistics Department Alumni Association. He has a wide interest in development, particularly in the areas of education, public health, nutrition, poverty eradication and environment. Dr. Chowdhury has published several books and over 150 articles in peer-reviewed international journals.
A Ph.D. holder from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Dr. Mushtaque completed his MSc from the London School of Economics and a BA with Honors from the University of Dhaka.

I realized that my role is not just about collecting data, but it is to make the work of BRAC known to broader development community within and outside the country.

You have been a development professional for forty years and have recently been awarded for your achievement. Please elaborate the details of this global recognition.
The award I received recently is called the “Medical Award of Excellence’ which is given annually by the US-based Ronald McDonald House Charities. Connected to the McDonald’s restaurant chain, the Charity was initiated in 1974 and has been providing support for compassionate care to children and their families worldwide. As of now, it works in 64 countries serving over five million families annually. This award, initiated in 1990, was won by many eminent personalities in the past, including former US President Jimmy Carter, former US First Ladies Betty Ford and Barbara Bush, Queen Noor of Jordan, Tennis star Andrea Jaeger and Health Minister of Rwanda Agnes Binagwahu. I am probably the first South Asian recipient of this prestigious award, and I feel very proud about it. An Award committee invites nominations from prominent people from across the world and decides on the winner from a shortlist of outstanding candidates. Recognition is the central aspect of it, but it carries prize money of $100,000, which will be donated to another charity of my choice.

You’ve been a part of BRAC from its inception. Tell us something about its situation back then.
When I joined in 1977 as a statistician, BRAC had only been operating for five years with its headquarters located in a small office at Moghbazar in Dhaka. But the main activities were in the field, in the remote areas of Sunamganj district. Soon after joining I was sent to the Sulla Project in Sunamganj. BRAC had been carrying out community development activities in about 200 villages of the haor region since 1972. There were projects on health, family planning, nutrition, education, agriculture, and microcredit. All the projects were geared towards empowering the poor and women. As the haor population did not grow or consume many vegetables, one of the projects promoted its cultivation and use. My first assignment was to evaluate the outcome of BRAC’s vegetable promotion in the villages. I spent a week in different communities trying to understand what the project was all about and how the villagers accepted it. I developed a simple questionnaire and tested it as a pilot. I was a fresh graduate from Dhaka University, and my knowledge or experience of how to design such an evaluation was rudimentary at best. Ultimately the idea of evaluating this program was abandoned as there was no baseline to compare with. However, this failed exercise taught me about the value of experimental design and non-quantitative ethnographic methods in research. More importantly, this first trip to Sulla gave me an immense opportunity to learn about the problems that the poor and women faced in rural Bangladesh, particularly in the backward haor areas, and see how BRAC was trying to address them through innovative means. The villages where BRAC was working had a very low literacy rate, less than 20%. BRAC designed an innovative adult literacy program called functional education. Following Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator-philosopher, a significant part of the technical education program was to make people conscious of themselves and their role in society. I was deeply moved and pleasantly surprised by seeing how BRAC was making poor women aware and empowered. I attended several village meetings in which I found the women very vocal and articulate in explaining how they were being exploited in the family and the society. I was convinced and impressed that BRAC was doing some fundamental transformational work in changing the rural community. Such Freirean work that we did in the 1970s and 1980s laid the foundation for BRAC’s work in the years to come. The transformation we see now in the lives of women in Bangladesh has had much to do with what other NGOs and we did during that time.
After the Sulla trip, I was asked to work in BRAC’s second integrated project, Manikganj. Supported by EZE of Germany, the project required a baseline survey to be done. I spent three months in the project and devoted all my knowledge and energy to do a good survey. There was no looking back afterward. I initiated many studies including a survey on Gonokendra, a monthly development journal that BRAC was producing for primary school teachers with UNICEF support. At the same time, I also started collaborating with a researcher at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) to do some sophisticated analysis of data that we had collected on family planning in Sulla. I used to spend my daytime in BRAC and evenings at BIDS working on the family planning data. The results were dramatic – Sulla had the highest contraceptive prevalence and continuation rates in Bangladesh. I realized that my role is not just about collecting data, but it is to make the work of BRAC known to broader development community within and outside the country. We then started giving attention to publishing the success (and failure) stories of BRAC through scientific publications. The family planning results were published in the BIDS journal, The Bangladesh Development Studies, in 1978. BRAC is an action organization but my first few years of experimenting with research led to the quick realization that there was an appetite for evidence and its use in the organization. My purpose in BRAC was already determined – to help BRAC become an evidence-based organization!

Tell us the story behind BRAC’s success.
The recipe behind BRAC’s success has always been its robust, dedicated and uninterrupted leadership. Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, whom we fondly call Abed bhai, with his vision of a free and exploitation-free Bangladesh, has always been at the helm. He is a versatile genius with immense knowledge about everything. When I shared a draft report of the Manikganj baseline survey, my first output in BRAC, he took two days to read it. While giving his feedback, he asked me a few questions, which surprised me, of course very pleasantly. The questions he asked were about my use of different statistical methods and whether the use of specific other methods would strengthen the analysis. That was the day that I decided to stay in BRAC for the rest of my career and work with Abed bhai. I knew I would have the opportunity to learn and utilize my knowledge here directly. I sympathize with my many colleagues who did not get such opportunities to work with him directly.
Many observers have attributed BRAC’s success to its exceptionally efficient management system. The internal audit department, for example, employs nearly 300 staff. BRAC is large with almost one lac staff, but the management is sufficiently decentralized with a clear information sharing system in place between the field and headquarters. Observers have also pointed out BRAC’s continued and unfailing emphasis on women. Most of the program participants, be it in microfinance, education or health, are all women. BRAC believes in scale. If a solution is effective at a small scale, we feel it is an imperative to bring it to as many people as possible. ‘Small is beautiful but large is necessary,’ as the saying goes in BRAC! BRAC’s programs are large and now reach about 120 million people, most of whom are in Bangladesh.
BRAC works closely with the government but doesn’t shy away when needed to challenge any government action that BRAC thinks goes against the interest of the poor. BRAC also works in close partnership with the development partners. Some of the donors of BRAC have continued supporting it since its inception. BRAC has achieved such trust of our partners. The other distinguishing feature of BRAC is its insistence on sustainability. BRAC has been establishing enterprises since the 1970s. The enterprises support its development programs and generate a surplus for use in other development activities. 80% of the $1 billion annual budget of BRAC is generated internally. BRAC is often its fiercest critiques. The investment in research and evaluation has made BRAC one of the very few evidence-based NGOs globally. And last but not the least is BRAC’s continued commitment to its purpose. It has remained true to its goals but has changed course and strategies based on the changing needs of the poor and the national and global realities.

What is the reason behind the success of NGOs in Bangladesh?
The War of Liberation has brought a massive change in the mindset of the people of Bangladesh. Most of the large NGOs such as BRAC and Gonoshasthaya Kendra are the direct fruits of the War. The NGOs made good use of the changed mindsets. The prestigious medical journal Lancet has recently published a full series of articles on Bangladesh’s progress. Interestingly, one of the reasons attributed to this success is the Liberation War. The promotion of family planning is cited as an example. Before the war, conservatives created obstructions against family planning. However, after liberation, the conservatives were defeated along with their viewpoints, and others were free to live based on their own beliefs and philosophies. The work of NGOs and, of course, the government has led to the family planning revolution in the country. This social reform brought by the liberation war was hastened by NGOs whereas such improvements are not visible in Pakistan or India. In case of sanitation, on another example, Bangladesh has done tremendously well. The rate of open defecation in Bangladesh is 1% compared to India’s 50%. Bangladesh has worked in a similar direction from the 1970s and created a base, which is still contributing to issues such as family planning, sanitation, and microcredit. The NGOs are still working to empower and make people conscious, and I believe this has contributed significantly to their success in the country over time.

What social impacts do the “Ultra poor” and “Adolescence Girls Club” projects run by BRAC have on the society?
BRAC’s program on ultra-poor focuses on the bottom 10 to 15% of the population in poverty scale. They do not have access to microfinance. Initiated in 2001, this program offers a package of interventions including participatory identification of the ultra-poor families, transfer of assets such as cows, goats, chickens or small grocery shops, training on how to take care of the assets, and coaching. We also give them a stipend so that they can concentrate in rearing the assets, as well as health services. Till date, we have been able to reach around 1.7 million families. According to research studies done by the London School of Economics, the participant family members have continued their upward march to earning more income and assets and improving the nutritional status of their children. Experiences suggest that 95% of the participants are able to graduate out of ultra-poverty within two years and gain access to microfinance and other market-based poverty reduction tools. In 2004, the Ford Foundation and the World Bank replicated the model in ten countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, which produced similar positive results as Bangladesh. At present, this model is being implemented in 40 other nations of the world. This is an example of how a model developed by BRAC in Bangladesh is being used to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) globally.
BRAC Adolescence Girls Club model has also been replicated in many countries where BRAC works. In Uganda, for example, thousands of Ugandan adolescent girls are participating in over 1200 such clubs. Research done by the London School of Economics found that participation in adolescent clubs has resulted in higher use of family planning and in lowering fertility rate. This is quite significant in a society where the large family (with 6+ children) is a norm. A vast social change is being ushered in the process.

What measures have you taken concerning the health sector?
Bangladesh has done reasonably well in recent years in improving the health status of its population. This has been possible because of selected public health programs are undertaken by the government and NGOs. Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) program done by BRAC is a good example. Other successful programs include immunization, tuberculosis and family planning. However, there are other issues in the health sector that need to be addressed to reach the SDGs. These include non-communicable diseases such as cancer, hypertension, and diabetics, etc. which is responsible for 65 percent of deaths nowadays. To address such issues we need to have a good health system and definite and sustained steps towards ensuring Universal Health Coverage (UHC). We are currently working on some areas including maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH), TB, nutrition, primary health care, eye care, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), malaria, etc.
BRAC has a significant contribution in the country’s educational sector. What new things is your organization planning to bring forward in this regard?
The literacy rate in Bangladesh has gone up over the years, but effective literacy is still not more than 50%. BRAC is doing its part of bringing children to schools. Fortunately, almost all children are enrolled in schools but, unfortunately, many drops out before passing the primary level. The transition from primary to secondary is low. The quality of education remains a major issue. BRAC is experimenting new ways of financing primary and secondary education. We are also in the forefront of using modern technology in classrooms, and in instruction and this respect, we are working closely with the government. We are also experimenting new models of delivering early childhood education from birth to age 5. The BRAC University has already become a major destination for the new generation. It is one of the top universities in the private sector. In a recent rating, BRAC University is third in Bangladesh after Dhaka University and BUET. The University’s School of Public Health is attracting students from over 25 countries of all the continents.

What is the future of prospect of the Bangladesh economy?
Like most Bangladeshis, I am very optimistic about the future of Bangladesh. The poverty situation has improved significantly – proportion of population poor has declined from about 60% in the 1980s to less than a quarter now. This, however, means that 40 million of our citizens are still poor by any standard! This is unacceptable. The recent HIES released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics shows some alarming trend. The gap between the rich and poor is growing very fast. In 2010, the poorest five percent of the population had 0.78% of the national income, which has now reduced to 0.23%. On the other hand, the share of the wealthiest five percent population has increased from 24.6% to 27.9%. There is no alternative to shared growth.

world record job creator 9* Sir Fazle Abed: whose system designs and microfranchises exponentially helped world poorest women build 100+ million person nations (eg 9.1 quadir brothers : brac and www.bkash.com; 9.2 abdul latif ; 9.3 paul polak ; 9.4 borlaug ; 9.5 ying lowrey

Monday, September 29, 2014

reports from start of last millennium goals year

valuetrue.com curricula for the world record book of job creation

brac.tv: people i wish i had introduced the poor world's greatest jobs creator to

Home

valuetrue search for most human value of internet

brac.tv: people i wish i had introduced the poor world's greatest jobs creator to

Why nature will not sustain human species unless act now on biggest mistakes economists made Q3 C21

Which brand most collaboratively values millennials goals to 2030?

Course World Record Job Creators -by friends of The Economist's Macrae's Net Generation's Heroes

Saving Youth - Top 100 Videos to Viralise

Leapfrogging curriculum- humanity's greatest value multiplying revolution

MillennialHealth Curriculum - next half billion jobs

Dont you just love economics and media? aka jobs and the curriculum of youth economics

1758 birth of moral viewpoint of economics as social action

Will enough Under 35 year olds know how to map goodwill value chains for 21st to sustain human race?

Mindset's Great Escape: elders economics war on youth

Curriculum of safe community banking

Curriculum of The Web as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet. The future is still so much bigger

Diary of when/where youth can linkin to sustain world

2030 curriculum of Gandhi

Nobel Peace Summit Curriculum Competition

curriculum of washington dc - worst of best pro-youth capital

socialbusiness.tv

Conscious Capitalism $64 Trillion Dollar Curriculum - Purpose of Hi-Trust banking 99% of humans need

Who was missing from cast of first social good summit-mooc?

9 minute mooc - youth futures depend on whether ceos sustain or destroy value chains

Which trillion dollar markets have even one ceo leading best for youth futures

debates with big funders of end poverty schemes

will media barons ever learn to value connections between likes and dislikes?

The Future History of Social Business Since 1976

how does conscious capitalism relate to valuetrue exchange

VT & collaboration entrepreneur revolution of micrifranchies and bottom-up value chain mapping

VT and the compound risks of unseen wealth

The Economist & Bangladesh - VT & 1976's 2 great calls for wholeplanet redesign of 21st C systems :

3 most important metrics of pro-youth economics: goodwill, sustainability, transparency

Book Introduction to economics of youth

Diary UN start of the year 2014-=2015 new york -file note for http://brac.tv verison 1

I was privilleged to attend 5 meetings in 48 hours before getting an early train to listen to the curriculum of rice at usaid shared by the phillipines open learning network IRRI

http://valuetrue.com/id32.html and brac.tv Last week I attended NY gala luncheon convened to celebrate sir fazle abed - unfortunately I was on other side of room during the 90 minutes we shared bread- these are my shortlist of people I met over 48 hours in NY that I really wished I had a quick chance to introduce to sir fazle abed

-but first It was a pleasure to see that sir fazle abed has redoubled his commitments to girls-job designed education (more at openlearningcampus.com and womenuni.com )

ps this startup year 2014-2015 was particulatly important as it also coincides with the last student year before millennium goals are hopefully given back to girls as per this sir fazle abed inspired script http://www.dhakatribune.com/op-ed/2014/sep/10/learning-beyond-2015 -realistically its also the last student year that universities across america will have a chance to converge on the CNN turner invitation atlanta nov 2015 http://youthcreativelab.blogspot.com -what do millennials now know to linkin to UN after the billion dollar empowerment giving from the turner family

from www.fashion4development.com summit

sarah butler sloss (ne sainsbury) green microenergy awards networks http://ashden.org with royal co-sponsor prince charles

a female executive of the state department ( name private until project wwwww is started )

wife of ambassador to philippines in new york

co-creator of the green carpet at perfume company Chopard (hq in geneva)

dr michel sidibe of unaids in geneva

franca sozzani of vogue italy who could have more impact if she teamed up with rome links noted below

from UN Global leadership women

the toure family (father mother daughter) of ITU geneva and linking first ladies of africa (including their home base oe mali) to Zero mothers die - one of the most urgent reasons I can thinks of valuing free nursing colleges everywhere

the redoubtable eva wan of Bawang international-one of china's strongest business ladies and now "giving" to girls education in africa

from the dt seminar sponsored by grameen intel, ifad and usaid

Kazi Huque (and intel team) whose nurtured about 25 wizard bangladeshi technologists to work on converting big data to mobile agri apps for poorest farmers

IFAD leaders rome who could do so much more reaching out to millennials' youth if they partnered club of rome and its youth social action networks of the nobel peace laureates summit

the usaid speaker who promised to connect leaders of curriculum of rice (wednesday dc usaid)

from our quieter dinner party and collaboration cafe

ladies changing the jewelry value chain and john of soundtrackny.com

ethiopian and usafrica disapora supporters of the elearning satelllite http://www.yazmi.com, and dispora's taking responsibility to end costly middlemen from 20 selected food markets

who do you most wish you had introduced sir fazle abed to and where are they located in case diaries ever snap! chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk washingtin dc 301 881 1655 valuetrue.com

more of what happened in new york

http://brac.tv and

https://www.google.com/search?q=fazle+abed&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ei=kY8pVNmhDOq1sQTcrIKQBA&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAw&biw=1202&bih=658

wanted - ideas on how anywhere could unite in celebrating good news of collaborating with brac

Timeline of Open Learning Campus (OLC) -latest newsletter

2014 world record top10 job creator jim kim's world bank takes collaboration lead : launching OLC (with coursera) august 2014, 2nd annual youth summit october 7 2014, first annual UN-partnered millennials competition spring 2015

100 links to BRAC

background research links on women4empowernent curricula at womenuni.comand millennials (25-35 profesionals) most valuable knowledge network ever to human race at yunus.tv

....

1972: in the West The Economist starts debating OLC after seeing students experiment with early digital learning network (UK national dev program computer assisted elarning; milllenials goals and swot of planetary sustainability of net generation published after 12 years of global views mediation; NZ educators start continuous experiments atwww.thelearningweb.net- book form becomes favorite export to 10 million chinese parents

in East BRAC starts greatest bottom-up lab for OLC -Bangladesh becomes doubly famous for this when Muhammad Yunus starts linkng in 4 years later- latest updates celebration's MOOC Yunus; yunus invites atlanta to turn youth peace laureate summits into twin capitak events with most value to host than olympics or world cup

1989 Berners Lee launches the web- soon mit media lab in boston becomes most resourced open source tech wizards innovation lab;early 1990s Samara launches Africa's and Asia first freedom of peoples info satellites-sonn Kenya's IHUB backed by ushahidi becomes the worldwide youth's most exciting open source tehnology wizard's networking space

- 2014 update Yazmi.comled by DC-Ethiopia diaspora networks

Late 1990s S.Africa's free university launched- 2014 update Blecher parners now shoot for 1 million additional job creation across whole 14 million youth african schooing system by 2020- ihub partners all over africa (and indeed in any capital with future) invited to linkin

Late 200s Khan Academy invesnts the most valuable reporting format of all -maximum 9-minute audio blackoards-0 game is on- which audio-blackboards are so valued by youth to peer to peer learn with that their viral actin networking makes trending on twitter look like a sideshow

puzzle 1 : Back in 1962 The Economust celebrate the win-win peace economics model of japan and projects milennail population statistics will require Asian Pacific milllenials to be responsible for more than half of the planet's open and sustainbility investments 1975- 2025- who;s connecting this? jack ma? Yao Ming with Brookings Inside Out China and Unseen Wealth teams? rsvp chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk washington dc hotline 301 881 1655

How did bottom-up NGO BRAC become the world's largest most collaborative network for partnering in millennials sustainability? While it is known globally and locally for sharing extreme innovations in community banking, its foundations were first built on 3 subnetworks:

bottom-up disaster relief

massive scaling of microfranchisie solutions to life critical challenges

what the WISE laureates value as number 1 job-creating education network in the world (parallel nominees by context of freedom of entrepreneurial skills)

help us review 2013 MOOC

2013 was a year in which professors might have found out what a huge gap ...

- is khan academy's 60 minutes introduction to coding the most valuable training billions of youth have ever been offered? otherKhan links

Who's mapping the most valuable collaboration youth networks in the world -here's why 42 years of entrepreneurial revolution surveys lead us to value orbiting around families of Abed and Soros and Turner- whose collaboration with youth's futures do you value most?

...

what would a million youth most wish to see in a 6 weeks mooc guided tour to www.brac.net -if you can help our research please email chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk washington dc 1 301 881 1655

internet as entrepreneurial revolution of learning learning

valuetrue search for most human value of internet

1:34 pm edt

Thursday, September 25, 2014

brac commits to massive scale up girls education

Global anti-poverty leader pledges to invest at least $280 million to reach 2.7 million additional girls and train 75,000 teachers by 2019.

(PRWEB) September 24, 2014

BRAC, already a global leader in providing opportunity for the world’s poor, has boosted its commitment to girls’ education in low-income countries with a five-year pledge to reach 2.7 million additional girls through primary and pre-primary schools, teacher training, adolescent empowerment programs, scholarships and other programs.

These commitments make BRAC a leading partner in CHARGE, the Collaborative for Harnessing Ambition and Resources for Girls Education, a global collaborative of more than 30 partners working to advance the “second generation” of global girls’ education. The initiative was announced today by Hillary Rodham Clinton, former US secretary of state; Chelsea Clinton, Clinton Foundation vice-chair; and Julia Gillard, former prime minister of Australia, at the 10th Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York.

"We have always used an approach to development that puts power in the hands of the poor themselves, especially women and girls," says Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder and chairperson of BRAC, who joined other leaders at Clinton Global Initiative today to launch the initiative. "Educated girls turn into empowered women, and as we have seen in my native Bangladesh and elsewhere, the empowerment of women leads to massive improvements in quality of life for everyone, especially the poor."

BRAC is already the world's largest private, secular education provider, with 1.3 million boys and girls now enrolled in 43,500 primary and pre-primary schools and 311,000 participants in its adolescent development programs. Formerly Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, BRAC is now active in a dozen countries, serving the poor through the empowerment of women and girls with tools such as microfinance, education, healthcare and a full-fledged university, BRAC University in Dhaka.

This commitment significantly expands BRAC's existing education programs by reaching an additional 1.3 million girls directly in BRAC schools, roughly 636,000 additional girls through teacher training in government schools, and 714,000 more through various other programs, including adolescent empowerment, gender harassment awareness, mentorship programs, and scholarships.

BRAC estimates the investments needed to fulfill these commitments will be more than $280 million, over half of which has already been raised from partnerships with AusAid, UK Aid and The MasterCard Foundation.

Specifically, BRAC commits to the following areas:

1. Getting girls into school: Since its inception in 1985, more than 10 million students have graduated from BRAC's primary and pre-primary schools, which target children who would otherwise be left behind by formal education systems due to poverty, displacement or discrimination. BRAC recognizes the unique role girls play in bringing health and prosperity to their communities, and the majority of its students are girls.

BRAC plans to expand its school programs to offer education to about 1.3 million girls in marginalized communities across seven countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan Tanzania, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Uganda.

BRAC recognizes that entering primary school is not enough. It further commits to providing 11,500 scholarships in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Uganda to ensure that girls have the support they need to stay in school at least through secondary education.

2. Ensuring school safety: BRAC’s approach to schooling relies heavily on community support. In all areas – including Pakistan and Afghanistan, where going to school is often dangerous for girls – BRAC works closely with members of the wider community to emphasize the importance of girls’ education. BRAC deepens community support through various local bodies and mechanisms, including school management committees, parent-teacher associations, and gender awareness to ensure that BRAC schools remain safe spaces for learning. As part of this commitment, BRAC pledges to expand existing programs in Bangladesh to improve school safety by raising awareness on gender harassment for 240,000 girls

3. Improving quality of learning: BRAC recognizes that enrollment numbers do not describe the true depth of the problem of quality in the world’s education systems. Schools in poor countries tend to favor rote memorization over true learning, doing little to impart the life and work skills needed to prepare our youth for the 21st century knowledge society. Of around 650 million primary school age children in the world today, an estimated 250 million have not learned to read or count, regardless of whether they have gone to school. Children need classrooms, teachers, suitable technology, and an enabling environment that will encourage them to think for themselves. These elements will develop the problem-solving skills, critical thinking ability, and enterprising mindsets that are some of the greatest assets for navigating one’s way out of poverty.

BRAC seeks to improve the quality of education for girls in seven countries by training 75,000 teachers in child-centric education methods. These teachers, in addition to reaching girls in BRAC’s own pre-primary and primary schools, also includes government school teachers who will reach an additional 636,000 girls in state-run primary and secondary schools.

4. Helping transition to the world of work: BRAC recognizes that the economic empowerment of women has led to enormous gains for poorer countries, and that preparing women for the workforce needs to begin at an early age. BRAC’s Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescents (ELA) program aims to do this by providing adolescents girls with safe spaces, peer mentorship, life skills, health awareness (particularly reproductive health), vocational and leadership skills, and access to finance through microloans. ELA is the fastest growing program in BRAC’s operations outside of Bangladesh, with more than 70,000 girls now participating in Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Liberia. They join more than 168,000 girls in similar clubs in Bangladesh, where a number of other trade-specific training programs have also led to girls breaking the gender barrier in traditionally male-dominated fields like driving and motorcycle repair.

BRAC plans to deepen and expand its adolescent girls empowerment programs in Bangladesh, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Liberia, reaching about 400,000 additional girls with robust and relevant livelihood training to ensure sustainable economic independence.

5. Supporting developing country leaders in girls’ education: BRAC is committed to providing thought leadership, advocacy and advisory services to advance successful girls’ education approaches and models around the world. BRAC plans to invest $6 million in the Institute for Educational Development at BRAC University in Dhaka to become a global learning hub for innovation, research, training, advocacy and assessment on approaches to quality education in the developing world. It commits to training 52,000 mentors in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Tanzania and Sierra Leone to give them the leadership skills they need to support vulnerable girls in school, and to develop a local learning network in Uganda to share best practices in girls' education.

With a track record of implementation at scale with continuous impact evaluation, BRAC can serve as a source of evidence and learning to improve program effectiveness. It therefore commits to developing programs of technical assistance for other NGOs, development agencies, and governments. It will develop partnerships and a learning community for stronger global advocacy with the hope of furthering the movement for girls' education and empowerment across the world.

ABOUT BRAC
BRAC, a development organization founded in Bangladesh in 1972, is a global leader in creating opportunities at scale as a means to end poverty. With more than 120,000 employees, it is the world's largest non-governmental organization, touching the lives of an estimated 135 million people in 12 countries using a wide array of antipoverty tools such as microfinance, education, healthcare, legal rights training and more. BRAC University in Dhaka is a hub of higher learning with more than 6,000 students enrolled. Learn more at BRAC.net.

ABOUT BRAC USA
BRAC USA is an independent, US-based grantmaking affiliate of BRAC formed in 2006 to advance and support BRAC's global mission to create opportunities to unleash human potential and end poverty. Learn more at BRACUSA.org.

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chris macrae bethesda 301 881 1655

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Coalition of fan webs of next billion girls jobs-led education include

BRAC.TV

FAZLEABED.COM

WOMENUNI.COM

OPENLEARNINGCAMPUS.COM

Who's Free Edu Who Free Nursing College

2:29 pm edt

Saturday, March 2, 2013

EDUCATIONAL OSCARS - FIRST WISE PRIZE WINNER
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/11/prweb8927135.htm

Abed is the first recipient of the prize, conceived in 2010 as a Nobel for the field of education. The world’s largest prize of its kind, the jury for the award consisted of five eminent persons in the field of education: James Billington, the U.S. Librarian of Congress; Jeffrey Sachs, director of The Earth Institute and Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University; Fatma Rafiq Zakaria, chair of India’s Maulana Azad Educational Trust; H.E. Naledi Pandor, Minister of Science and Technology for South Africa, and Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, the WISE chair.

In debates and panel discussions at the Doha conference, which runs from Nov. 1 to Nov. 3, BRAC officials are promoting the nonprofit’s high-tech, low-touch approach to educating the world’s poor. BRAC delivers a message of cost-efficiency and scalability to a summit of over 1,000 thought leaders running from Nov. 1 to Nov. 3 in Doha.

“In these difficult financial times, as more and more people rise up to speak for the ‘99%,’ occupying streets across various cities of the world, the issue of inequity has been thrown into the forefront of world politics,” says Abed. “How do we begin to address this? We start with education – because education is the great equalizer.”

Already educating millions, BRAC is in the midst of an international expansion effort that sees it perfecting and scaling up its innovative low-cost education approach with help from private sector partners. BRAC is scaling up massively in Uganda thanks to a $45 million commitment from The MasterCard Foundation, for instance. Numerous public sector agencies such as the UK’s Department for International Development and the Australian Government Overseas Aid Program have also partnered with BRAC on education initiatives.

Soon celebrating 40 years of operations in Bangladesh, the Dhaka-based organization emphasizes large-scale solutions. According to BRAC officials, the wisest investments are often as simple as renting a schoolhouse instead of building new ones.

After just five years in Uganda, BRAC and The MasterCard Foundation already reach over 2 million people and are on schedule to reach 4.2 million people, or over 12 percent of the population, by 2016. BRAC has exceeded commitments made in 2007 to educate youth in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia, having committed to mobilizing $271 million for education at the Clinton Global Initiative conference in 2007, with a goal of reaching 7.5 million children by 2012. BRAC has already raised more than $288 million to reach 5.6 million children.

“Innate talent is distributed equally around the world at birth, knowing no bounds of geography or class,” says Susan Davis, president and CEO of BRAC USA. “Opportunity is not. We need to redress that imbalance if this world of 7 billion is to prosper as a whole.”

In addition to traditional learning, BRAC seeks to “educate the whole child” with life skills training as part of a comprehensive antipoverty strategy designed to create ladders of opportunity for the poor. For instance, it is embedding social and emotional learning into its curriculum, teaching self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making. This approach is especially important in conflict and post-conflict environments like Afghanistan and South Sudan.

BRAC also partners with private entities to promote connectivity among the poor when it is cost-effective to do, using mobiles phones, smart phones, desktop and laptops. The organization is currently in partnership talks with Pearson PLC, a leading global media and education company, to assist in Pakistan and elsewhere.

10:16 am est

Friday, March 1, 2013

BRAC is celebrating impact of mobile and solar age of racing to end poverty like no other network - links welcome here.

Examples of mails being sent to highly connected youth entrepreneur competition leaders aimed at seeing if part of week 5 of brac mooc can extend collaboration to youth with most passionate ideas of solutions relevent to millenium goal acceleration

Typical mail being sent from MIT Collaboration Cafe Festival 7 March 2013

Last Sunday had an exciting meeting in Dhaka with sir fazle abed , BRAC's FOUNDER

Our idea is to design a massive open online curriculum as a 6 week guided tour to brac the world's most collaborative ngo- by about week 5 students will be asked to reference extraordinary youth competition entries that it would be most relevant for sir fazle and brac to support

So that the first draft of the curriculum is completed by end of june, I aim to arrange monthly meetings with sir fazle. I believe every way that MIT youth (including open tech wizards) and sir fazle can help each other is urgently needed. For example the quadir brothers, one of whom runs MIT Legatum, is helping BRAC design cashess banking to reach the next billion

Does this sound like your sort of adventure?

all the best

chris macrae washington dc 301 881 1655 skype chrismacraedc

www.brac.tv

rsvp chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk if you have an idea of a youth project that brac most needs to know about - egs

1 open infrared

9:22 am est

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Dimensions of BRAC Partnering

BRAC International

Last updated 23 November, 2011

UMCOR

BRAC Haiti

Partnership for:
Shelter Project in BRAC Haiti. Project duration is May 2011 - Jan 2012.
Agriculture based Livelihood intervention. Project duration is Mar 2011 - Mar 2012.

Fonkoze

BRAC Haiti

For the Housing Project in BRAC Haiti. Project duration is June 2010 - Nov 2011.

DIGICEL Foundation

BRAC Haiti

For the Youth Enterprise School (YES) in BRAC Haiti. Project duration is Mar 2011 - Feb 2012.

FOSI

BRAC Pakistan, BRAC Liberia, BRAC Sierra Leone
For the Health, Agriculture, Poultry & Livestock, Research & Evaluation, and Training Programmes in BRAC Liberia and Sierra Leone . Project duration is Oct 2008 - Dec 2011.Also for Flood rehabilitation project in Pakistan.

Omidyar Network

BRAC Sierra Leone, BRAC Liberia
For the Health, Agriculture, Poultry & Livestock, Research & Evaluation, and Training Programmes in BRAC Liberia and Sierra Leone . Project duration is Oct 2008 - Dec 2011.

Humanity United

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

BRAC Tanzania
For the Integrated Project in BRAC Tanzania.

UNCDF

BRAC Sierra Leone
For the Microfinance Programme in BRAC Sierra Leone. Project duration is Oct 2009 - Dec 2013.

BRAC Liberia
For the Microfinance Programme in BRAC Liberia. Project duration is Oct 2009 - Dec 2013.

AGRA

BRAC Liberia
For the Agriculture Programme in BRAC Liberia. Project duration is June 2011 - May 2013.
BRAC Sierra Leone
For Agriculture Programme. Project duration is June 2011 - May 2013.

GAVI

BRAC Afghanistan
GAVI is a partner for the Mobile Health Teams for Badghis project (duration is Sep 2008 - Dec 2011) and Nimroz project (duration is Sep 2008 - Dec 2011)

World Bank/MOPH

BRAC Afghanistan
The partnership is for SHARP Nimroz health project. The project duration is Oct 2009 - Mar 2013. The committed fund is USD 2,315,402.
BRAC South Sudan
For ELA programme. Project duration is May 2010 - Jan 2012.

USAID

BRAC Afghanistan
This is for agriculture programme. The project duration is Nov 2009 - Nov 2011. The committed fund is USD 4,445,291.

Italian Corporation

BRAC Internaitonal
This partnership is for agriculture programme. The project duration is Nov 2011 - Oct 2013. The committed fund is USD 500,000

United Way Worldwide

BRAC Tanzania - Microfinance
BRAC Microfinance, started its operation on the mid of 2006 in Tanzania and currently working in 112 branches with more than 118,000 borrowers. United Way Worldwide has been helping BRAC Tanzania as one of our promising partners for Poverty Alleviation through Micro Finance.
The overall objective of this partnership is to increase access to financial Services for the majority of poor in Masama Branch and Machame Branch in Kilimanjaro region with a particular emphasis on women who have been left out by the mainstream financial system. The program is designed with a focus on poverty reduction through credit facilities for employment and income generation for the poor in Masama and Machame. A minimum of 2000 women entrepreneurs in Masama and Machame will be served with small loans within 1 year.

UNICEF

BRAC Tanzania - ELA
The Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) programme started in Tanzania in August, 2008 with the financial support of BRAC USA. In April 2011, the programme expanded with the financial and technical support of UNICEF.
UNICEF & BRAC Tanzania share a commitment to the principles set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Convention on the right of the child and The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. BRAC Tanzania implement this through ELA (Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents) Program on prevention of HIV infection, unwanted pregnancy and Sexual Violence.
The UNICEF-funded program is running in the Temeke district and both urban and rural dstricts in the Mbeya region, with 80 clubs and 3,005 female members.
BRAC Uganda
For the Karamoja project. Project duration is from Nov 2010 - Dec 2014.

Oxfam Novib

BRAC Afghanistan
Partnership is for:
CBHP - Parwan and Nangarhar. The project duration is from Nov 2008 - Oct 2011
Wash Samangan project. Project duration is from Aug 2011 - Feb 2011
Disaster Risk Reduction Project. Project duration is from Sep 2010 - Aug 2011
BRAC South Sudan
For Agriculture Programme. Project duration is Apr 2010 - Mar 2012.

Global Fund

BRAC Afghanistan
Partnership is for:
GFATM R8 TB project. The project duration is from Oct 2009 - Sep 2014.
GFATM R8 Malaria (PR) project. Project duration is from Feb 2010 - Jan 2015.
GFATM R8 Malaria (SR) project. Project duration is from June 2010 - Jan 2015.

USAID

BRAC Afghanistan
This is for the TB Care 1 project. Project duration is from Feb 2009 - June 2011.

UNICEF

BRAC Afghanistan
Partnership for:
IMCHN - Kabul project. Project duration is from July 2010 - Oct 2011.
Health NID -Helmand project. Project duration is from Nov 2009 - Mar 2011.
MNCH Badghis project. Project duration is from Oct 2010 - Sep 2011.
MNCH - Helmand & Nimroz health project. Project Duration is from July 2011 - July 2012.
Behavioural Change & Communication project. Project duration is from Aug 2010 - July 2011.

WHO

BRAC Afghanistan
Partnership for the Health NID -Helmand project. Project duration is from Nov 2009 - Mar 2011.

AECID

BRAC Afghanistan
Partnership for the Nursing Training School project. Project duration is from Oct 2009 - Sep 2012.

WFP

BRAC Afghanistan
Partnership for:
Supplementary Feeding Programme. Project duration is from Feb 2010 - Mar 2011.
Food for TB Patients - Kabul project. Project duration is from Apr 2010 - Dec 2011.
Food for TB Patients - Parwan project. Project duration is from Apr 2010 - Dec 2011.

French Embassy

BRAC Afghanistan
Partnership is for the Surobi DH Support Project - Kabul. Project duration is from Sep 2010 - Apr 2011

CIDA

BRAC Afghanistan
Partnership is for the Girls Education Programme. Project duration is from Jan 2007 - Mar 2012.

UNESCO

BRAC Afghanistan
Partnership is for the Enhancement of Literacy in Afghanistan. Project duration is from July 2010 - June 2011.

Ministry of Rural Rahabilitation and Development(MRRD)

BRAC Afghanistan
Partnership is for the National Solidarity Programme (NSP)

World Bank

BRAC Afghanistan
Partnership is for the National Solidarity Programme (NSP).

IOM

BRAC Afghanistan
This is for the Community Infrastructure Project. Project duration is from July 2010 - June 2011.

MISFA

BRAC Afghanistan
Partnership is for the Targeting Ultra Poor programme and also for the Comprehensive Capacity Development Programme.

Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund

BRAC Pakistan
Partnership is for the Education, Health, Social Safety Net project Health Insurance TUP, Flood Refinancing through MF and also for the Flood Rehabilitation project.

UWW - Citi Foundation

BRAC Tanzania
For the Microfinance programme.

IRRI

BRAC Tanzania
For the Rice Cultivation in collaboration with IRRI.

MasterCard Foundation

BRAC Uganda
For Health, Education, Agriculture, Poultry & Livestock, Research & Evaluation and ELA programmes.

Gold Smith

BRAC Uganda
For Karamoja Project. Project duration is Nov 2011 - Nov 2013.

Insightshare

BRAC Uganda
For Participatory Video Initiative - ELA programme. Project duration is Aug 2011 - Mar 2012.

Population Services International (PSI)

BRAC South Sudan
For Malaria project. Project duration is Jan 2011 - Dec 2012.

Comic Relief

BRAC South Sudan
For Education project. Project duration is Feb 2011 - Mar 2014.

Stromme Foundation

BRAC South Sudan
For Education Programme. Project duration is Jan 2010 - Dec 2012.

London Mining

BRAC Sierra Leone
For Agriculture programme. Project duration is July 2011 - June 2012.

OSJI

BRAC Sierra Leone
For Human Rights and Legal Empowerment Programme. Project duration is June 2010 - Dec 2011.

Trocaire

BRAC Sierra Leone
For Human Rights and Legal Empowerment programme. Project duration is Jan 2011 - Dec 2013.

Caritas Austria

BRAC Haiti
For Morne a Bateau Livelihood Project. Project duration is Feb 2011 - Jan 2012.

Knowledge Partners

Last updated 23 November, 2011

George Washington University

Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Programme, Disaster, Environment and Climate Change Programme

BRAC DECC and WASH Programmes host one intern every three months as a receiving institution. All students complete pre-agreed tasks as part of fulfilling their requirements for Masters in Global Health. Three credits are awarded to the intern on successful completion of the assignment.

International resource Centre for Water and Sanitation

Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Programme

IRC is considered a "centre of excellence" in water, sanitation and hygiene globally. They provide back-up technical support in the fields of technical, knowledge management and monitoring for the ongoing WASH Programme.

FHI 360

Alive and Thrive, Health Programme

FHI 360 (former AID-ARTS) provides technical support in communication and private sector activties.

GMMB

Alive and Thrive, Health Programme

GMMB provides advocacy support.

IFPRI

Alive and Thrive, Health Programme

IFPRI provides support in monitoring, learning and evaluation.

International Rice Research Institute

Agriculture and Food Security Program

IRRI is implementing different projects for the improvement of rice productivity of Bangladesh through variety development and technology dissemination.

International Potato Center (CIP)

Agriculture and Food Security Program

Research and development conducted on potatoes through gerplasm exchange and training.

World Fish Center

Agriculture and Food Security Program

Implementing the project on Challenge Programme on Water and Food (CPWF) in the southern parts of Bangladesh.

HarvestPlus Challenge Program (CIAT and IFPRI)

Agriculture and Food Security Program

BRAC is providing support for communication and deployment of zinc fortified rice varieties in Bangladesh. Negotiation is ongoing for participation in seed multiplication and marketing of orange-flesh sweet potato in Uganda, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The Executive Director of BRAC is a member of the Project Advisory Committee of HarvestPlus.

Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI)

Agriculture and Food Security Program

BRRI provides breeder seeds and training to BRAC staff.

Hi-Tech Seed Co Ltd, China

Agriculture and Food Security Program

BRAC is an active partner in producing hybrid rice seeds in Bangladesh with the technical assistance of Hi-Tech Seed Co Ltd. BRAC also desires to have access to technical knowledge in order to develop hybrid rice seeds which are suitable to Bangladesh climate and also to produce and market such seeds in the country.

Yuans Hi-Tech Seed Co Ltd, China

Agriculture and Food Security Program

BRAC is an active partner in producing hybrid rice seeds in Bangladesh with the technical assistance of Yuans Hi-Tech Seed Co Ltd. BRAC also desires to have access to technical expertise in order to develop hybrid rice seeds suitable to the Bangladesh climate and also to produce and market such seeds in Bangladesh.

China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center (CNHRRDC), China

Agriculture and Food Security Program

BRAC is an active partner in developing hybrid rice for the benefit of Bangladeshi farmers with the technical assistance of CNHRRDC. Both parties agreed to make efforts to jointly promote the development of hybrid rice, make contributions which will benefit the Bangladeshi farmers and strengthen the friendship between China and Bangladesh.

Small Engines for Economic Development (SEED), USA

Agriculture and Food Security Program

BRAC is an active partner to market the SEED pump, to address the designing and developing irrigation products and services which will increase the income for small farmers.

International Federation for Training and Development Organization (IFTDO), UK

BRAC Learning Divison

The IFTDO is a world-wide federation (UK based) formed in 1972. It is a diverse network of human capacity building and development organizations linking training and HR professionals in HR societies, corporations, universities, consultancies, government organizations and enterprises. Through its member organizations, it represents more than 500,000 professionals in 50 countries. Through this network BLD can:

• Increase recognition as an internationally active organisation by using the IFTDO logo while mentioning the fact that they are IFTDO members

• Expand capabilities through exchanging strategies, techniques and technology

• Learn about important training events and developments

• Access global thinking and practices through the IFTDO global network, projects and research

• Shape state-of-the-art international development projects

• Participate as delegates, presenters and exhibitors at IFTDO conferences

• Receive discount of on-conference registration

• Contribute articles to the IFTDO NEWS and website

World Vision Bangladesh

BRAC Learning Divison

A year-long course on "Leadership Enhancement and Development" designed and facilitated by BRAC Learning Division for the managers of World Vision Bangladesh.

Save the Children UK

BRAC Learning Divison

Jointly working on submitting a training project proposal with BLD.

Save the Children USA

BRAC Learning Divison

Three-month long training project on health issues undertaken in the Bhola District.

Sajida Foundation

BRAC Learning Divison

BLD Provides different training course on Development Management, Human Communication and Personnel Management to the Sajida Foundation staff members.

ILO Bangladesh

BRAC Learning Divison

BLD provides different training courses on Supportive Supervision, Human Communication and Monitoring and Evaluation to the staff of ILO Bangladesh.

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB)

BRAC Learning Divison

BLD provides different training courses on Management, and Effective Communication to the staff of TIB.

SIT

Advocacy for Social Change

Local Press Clubs of 47 District & Divisions

TB Control, Malaria Control, Health Programme

Journalist Associations

TB Control, Malaria Control, Health Programme

Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD)

Targeting the Ultra Poor Programme, Advocacy Programme

Institutional Donors

Last updated 23 November, 2011

Oxfam Novib

Community Empowerment Programme

Donors for the Social Development component of the Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction (CFPR) Project.

Education Programme

The funding of BRAC Education Programme II (BEP II) 2009- 2014 is supported by a donor consortium that includes five donors ( AusAID, CIDA, DFID, Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands and Oxfam NOVIB). Primarily, BEP II addresses issues relating to access and quality, and operates at five institutional levels:

Pre-primary, Primary, Secondary, Adolescent and Continuing education.

These are all areas where BEP has initiated different activities and made progress. In four of these areas, BEP provides direct access to services and has a strong focus in their quality. In the secondary education programme, BEP is partnering with government-supported schools to improve the quality of their service provision. Besides this, the European Commission (EC), Unicef and Nike contribute to BEP to operate non-formal primary schools, pre-primary schools, Adolescent Clubs and SOFEA (Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescent) programmes as bilateral donors.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Community Empowerment Programme

UNDP is the donor for the "UN Joint Programme on Violence Against Women" project, where BRAC Community Empowerment Programme (CEP) is providing technical assistance to UNDP for the project. The project takes place in the Habigonj, Narsingdi, Feni, Sirajgonj, Satkhira and Barguna districts. The project is being implemented in partnership with UNDP and Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives. The goal of the project is “to improve the overall violence against women (VAW) situation in the REOPA and LIC operating districts”.

EKN

Improving Maternal, Neonatal and Child Survival (IMNCS), BRAC Health Programme

Education Programme

Pre-primary, Primary, Secondary, Adolescent and Continuing education.

These are all areas where BEP has initiated different activities and made progress. In four of these areas, BEP provides direct access to services and has a strong focus in their quality. In the secondary education programme, BEP is partnering with government-supported schools to improve the quality of their service provision. Besides this, the European Commission (EC), Unicef and Nike contribute to BEP to operate non-formal primary schools, pre-primary schools, Adolescent Clubs and SOFEA ( Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescent) programmes as bilateral donors.

USAID

BRAC Health Programme

BRAC has been implementing a TB - HIV collaborative project with USAID funds, receiving technical and financial support for the project through FHI 360. The project offers HIV screening test to TB patients in six DOTS corners of BRAC in Dhaka and Chittagong city corporations.

FHI 360

BRAC Health Programme

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM)

TB Control, Malaria Control, Health Programme

From 2004 onwards, Bangladesh has been receiving the Global Fund for National TB Control Program under the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). BRAC serves as the principal recipient related to NGO implementation with 43 other partners. In addition, BRAC provides direct services in 297 upazillas in 42 districts, including Chittagong Hill Tracts, prisons, twenty four academic institutions, Chittagong and Khulna Port Authority Hospitals and various parts of the city corporations.

European Union

Agriculture and Food Security Programme

Implementing EU funded projects in the coastal regions of Bangladesh.

Islamic Development Bank (IDB)

Agriculture and Food Security Programme

Implementing agriculture credit project in the cyclone prone area of Bangladesh.

CIDA

Education Programme

Pre-primary, Primary, Secondary, Adolescent and Continuing education.

These are all areas where BEP has initiated different activities and made progress. In four of these areas, BEP provides direct access to services and has a strong focus in their quality. In the secondary education programme, BEP is partnering with government-supported schools to improve the quality of their service provision. Besides this, the European Commission (EC), Unicef and Nike contribute to BEP to operate non-formal primary schools, pre-primary schools, Adolescent Clubs and SOFEA ( Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescent) programmes as bilateral donors.

Implementation Partners

Last updated 23 November, 2011

UNICEF

Improving Maternal, Neonatal and Child Survival (IMNCS)

BRAC works at community level to create demand for health services among community people, while UNICEF works with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of GoB in the supply-side by providing technical and logistical support to the GoB health facilities.

Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communications (BNNRC)

Community Empowerment Programme

BRAC and BNNRC are in partnership forming "Children's Clubs" for BRAC's Community Radio, "Radio Pollikontho" in Maulvibazar, with funding from UNICEF.

Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF)

Community Empowerment Programme

Acid violence victims reported to BRAC CEP receive medical treatment, legal aid, and rehabilitation support in partnership with Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF).

Shishu Polli Plus

Community Empowerment Programme

BRAC CEP is providing Income Generation Activities Trainings to Shishu Polli Plus beneficiaries (women who are victims of violence). In addition, BRAC CEP refers women violence victims reported to CEP to Shishu Polli Plus shelter homes.

The Hunger Project - Bangladesh

Community Empowerment Programme

BRAC CEP and The Hunger Project - Bangladesh, is implementing the "Social Mobilization and Accountable Local Government towards Creating MDG Unions" in Mymensingh district in partnership. The project is funded by BRAC and also has BRAC RED as a partner.

Saferworld

Community Empowerment Programme

BRAC Community Empowerment Programme and Saferworld are in partnership implementing activities of the "Community Safety Pilot Project" in Kishoregonj district with funding from Saferworld.

Sightsavers

Vision Bangladesh Project, BRAC Health Programme

The Project is jointly funded by BRAC and Sightsavers with a portion of 50:50. BRAC is responsible for the demand side of the project i.e. advocacy and community mobilization. Sightsavers is responsible for the supply side including coordination with the partner hospitals for cataract surgery.

Migration Forum Asia (MFA)

Safe Migration Facilitation Centre (SMFC) Project

NGO Committee on Migration

Safe Migration Facilitation Centre (SMFC) Project

Migration Forum Asia (MFA)

Safe Migration Facilitation Centre (SMFC) Project

http://www.brac.net/content/about-brac-social-enterprises
BRAC Enterprises’ efforts are not driven towards maximizing profit for the shareholders, but to benefit its stakeholders who are essentially the millions of deprived and disenfranchised poor of the country. The surplus that BRAC social enterprises generate fuel most of BRAC’s non-income activities such as the health and education programmes. Learn more ...

See all BRAC social enterprises at a glance or view details below:

Agriculture & Food: BRAC Sericulture, BRAC Cold Storage, BRAC Tea Estates, BRAC Salt
Health: BRAC Sanitary Napkin & Delivery Kit
Livestock & Fisheries: BRAC Poultry, BRAC Poultry Rearing Farms, BRAC Fisheries, BRAC Dairy, BRAC Feed Mills, BRAC Artificial Insemination, BRAC Chicken
Green Enterprises: BRAC Solar, BRAC Nursery, BRAC Handmade Recycled Paper
Retail: Aarong
Printers and Printing Pack: BRAC Printers, BRAC Printing Pack

BRAC's first www Youth Entrepreneur Competition
BRAC’s first-ever Facebook competition is officially over! Congratulations to our winner, Daniel Ng from the University of Virginia on his ‘Play’ Project– a community playground project with the objective of creating safe accessible spaces for underprivileged children to play.

A special mention goes out to our runners up; Maya – a community empowerment project for women, and Amadeyr Cloud’s digital content delivery project.

In January, we received over 40 submissions from around the world and finally narrowed it down to seven best innovations with potential to be implemented at BRAC. We convened several internal judging panels to make our final decision. The winner gets the unique opportunity to work with BRAC’s Social Innovation Lab in Bangladesh.

http://www.bracdevelopmentinstitute.org/
Event: 3ie-LIDC Seminar - Reaching the Poorest: Lessons from the Graduation Model

If you're in London, come see BRAC Development Institute's Syed Hashemi and Anasuya Sangupta discuss an effective model for reaching the very poorest. The Graduation model is based on BRAC's Ultra Poor programme in Bangladesh and is being piloted and scaled up in 10 countries around the world.

Date: Tuesday 24th April, 2012
Venue: Manson Lecture Theatre, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, UK
Time: 5:30 – 7 pm

Speakers:
Syed Hashemi, Founder and Director, BRAC Development Institute and Senior Advisor, CGAP
Aude de Montesquiou, Microfinance Analyst, CGAP
Anasuya Sengupta, Senior Research Associate, BRAC Development Institute

2:41 pm edt

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2011

Creative space: the BRAC Social Innovation Lab

On October 19, the BRAC Social Innovation Lab was formally launched in an informal gathering called “Social Innovation Forum.” The event focused on a theme of “How does BRAC do social innovation—past, present, and future?” and was dedicated to the memory of Aminul Alam (1949-2010), one of BRAC’s earliest and most influential innovators. A clip of his retelling of BRAC’s initial activities in poultry was played to pay tribute to the passion and incredible dedication he brought to the organization.

The chairperson, Sir Fazle Abed, participated in the launch and offered inspirational reflections on innovation at BRAC. “Necessity is the mother of all inventions, as well as innovations,” he remarked with humor, and emphasized that BRAC’s goal at this point is not to reinvent the wheel, but to “do old things in a new, unique way.” There are many examples of these principles in practice in BRAC’s history; in the Oral rehydration Therapy Extension Program (OTEP) that BRAC launched in the 1970s, for example, BRAC took the “per-piece” payment scheme and applied it to health educators, tying their compensation to how many mothers they effectively taught how to make the lifesaving solution of water, salt, and sugar. Lay health educators reached twelve million mothers and significantly reduced child mortality from diarrheal disease, the major killer at the time. It used a similar model for education, considering students’ retention of knowledge in teachers’ pay. “No one had done it this way, but we did,” Abed commented. Innovation is one of BRAC’s core values, and there is no shortage of examples of how this looks in action. Abed closed his comments by reflecting on the many opportunities for innovation in the current global context, with particular excitement about gains that could be realized in education with creative usage of technology and expanding connectivity.

Few places in the world have a more apparent need for creativity in development than Bangladesh. At once a success story of economic growth, entrepreneurship, and public-private approaches to building durable strategies for providing social services, it continues to face a host of complex and significant changes: climate change, rapid rates of urban migration, to name just a few. Bangladesh must grapple with the growing economic and social inequalities, and mobile populations that challenge traditional delivery models for everything from TB treatment to microfinance. BRAC can be a leader in identifying ways to adapt and continue to combat poverty in the midst of these changes. And with its expanding presence abroad, there are increasing opportunities to translate these local innovations to new contexts. With 2.5 billion people still living on under US $2 a day, the necessity remains quite palpable.

With these possibilities in mind, the newly formed Social Innovation Lab team made a short presentation to further describe the state of innovation at BRAC. They called attention to how the organization has evolved over time to manage the incredible scale and scope of its activities—in introducing the necessary processes and specialized units that this operation requires, barriers to encouraging, testing, and evaluating innovative ideas have inadvertently cropped up. This is particularly true for dialog across programs, leading to missed opportunities to effectively harness the full magnitude of experience and wisdom at BRAC. In addition, there is often limited time to examine how others, in Bangladesh and abroad, are tackling dimensions of poverty, or to keep up with the ever-advancing state of knowledge, technology and research and global priorities. Innovation is a crucial competency to maintain, to continue to effectively combat poverty and sustain the energy and excitement of the caliber and talent of individuals that have built the BRAC that exists today.

How can a massive organization practice innovation? BRAC has been reflecting on how to ensure that its investment in innovation matches the scale of its operations, and out of these conversations, the initial idea of a “Social Innovation Lab” was conceived. Housed in the Communications Department, this unit will seek to institutionalize innovation at BRAC and create an accessible space for all where ideas are shared, generated and nurtured. It will support programs in identifying existing innovations, running pilot programs, and facilitating dissemination of experiences, as well as seeking new partners with promising solutions to work with BRAC in tackling complex issues. Through its activities, the Social Innovation Lab will build program capacity for managing internal innovation and foster cross-program and organization-wide dialog and support for new ideas on how to advance BRAC’s mission. Already, a variety of exciting opportunities are emerging for consideration, from better serving “floating people” (transient slum dwellers) in urban areas, to utilizing technology for effective data utilization in integrated initiatives, to exploring reproductive health for adolescents to adopting an innovative model of private high schools from Kenya. The Social Innovation Lab will evaluate these proposals and their overall alignment with BRAC’s strategy and activities, and work with the programs to prioritize which to pursue. Many more exciting suggestions were offered by BRAC staff who attended the event, confirming that there is a wealth of innovative spirit and potential to harness and build on.

Click here to learn more about the Social Innovation Lab.

4:19 am edt

Saturday, June 25, 2011

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Dear chris,

With all of my years working with BRAC and in development in general, I still find myself consistently blown away by the people we work with. Last month in Liberia, I met Cecilia Doe, a formidable woman who took on the Firestone corporation to get rights to land where her community now leverages BRAC's tools and training to grow rice.

Cecilia is Liberia's secret to success, and she's one of millions! You can read below about how young girls in Uganda and Bangladesh are changing their communities as well.

In addition to the incredible women and girls BRAC works with in developing communities, there are also many wonderful volunteers and interns who commit their time to BRAC's mission. I had a chance to meet with some of the summer interns at BRAC while in Bangladesh earlier this month, and was thoroughly impressed by this amazing group. You can read posts from some of our interns in the US and in Bangladesh on our blog.

New and experienced, our interns and volunteers are part of the soul of this organization. They are true ambassadors of BRAC.

Best wishes,
Susan
Susan Davis
President & CEO
BRAC USA

BRAC Partners with SMS Forum UReport in Uganda
BRAC was recently introduced to an initiative called Ureport. Initiated by UNICEF, Ureport is an SMS based forum designed to provide Ugandan youth with a platform to raise issues that concern them. The system uses mobile technology to allow youth to interact with each other and participate in a national dialog process.

BRAC Uganda has partnered with the Ureport initiative by including the members from their youth clubs. BRAC Uganda's Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescents program has 690 clubs for adolescent girls and a further 100 Youth Development Centers under its Access to Health, Education and Youth Development program in Karamoja. About 26,500 adolescent girls in Uganda are now reached by these programs. Ureport is a great opportunity for BRAC to connect these girls through new mediums and a feedback based process. It fits nicely with our objective of supporting youth in becoming contributing members of their communities. Already more than 3,500 club members are being registered into the system along with nearly 9,000 young members from the microfinance and health programs. The hope is that these BRAC participants will spread the message and encourage others to join.

Click here to read the rest.

Insana's Story: A Student and a Teacher

Insana_BRAC%20SoFEA%20Girls%20Club%20Memter

Insana is 18 years old. She lives in a village in Kalampur, Dhamrai in Bangladesh.

When she was in Grade 10, Insana was forced to drop out of school, as her family was unable to bear the associated costs and needed one more hand to add to the meager family income. This was a big blow for Insana, as she enjoyed school and wanted to continue her education further. Nevertheless, in response to her family’s needs, Insana stopped going to school and started rearing some chicks and ducks to help support her family.

Insana was a member of a local SoFEA club, and her club mentor and the staff became aware of this and offered her the chance to enroll in a training program to learn tailoring. Although there was pressure from her family to find a higher earning job, Insana decided to take up the training.

Click here to read more of Insana's story.

Christy Turlington goes back to Bangladesh

This week, Christy Turlington Burns returned to Bangladesh for the first time since filming No Woman, No Cry, a documentary that follows the stories of four women who face the dangers of pregnancy. One of the stories Christy covers in her film is Monica, who is working with Yasmin, a BRAC Community Health Promoter, to ensure she has a safe pregnancy.

On the first day of her return, Christy talks with BRAC staff and visits our maternal health program in the slums of Dhaka, where she reunites with Yasmin.

Click here to read Christy's story of her first day back in Bangladesh.

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Sunday, September 27, 2009

Global Alliance for Banking on Values commit to support $2 billion lending expansion

NEW YORK, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- A new network of growing, crisis-resistant, sustainable banks has announced an ambitious commitment to support the expansion of $2 billion in lending to underserved communities and green projects around the world.The Global Alliance for Banking on Values made the announcement at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York this month. The independent network of eleven of the world's leading sustainable banks - who serve over 7 million customers, in 20 countries, with a combined balance sheet of over $14 billion - was launched earlier this year in the Netherlands. According to its Chair, it already has concrete proposals to start making a major impact.he Global Alliance for Banking on Values consists of the following members:
Alternative Bank ABS, Switzerland, www.abs.ch
Banca Popolare Etica, Italy, www.bancaetica.com
Banex, Banco del Exito, Nicaragua, www.banex.com.ni
BRAC Bank and BRAC Microfinance Programme, Bangladesh, www.brac.net andwww.bracbank.com
GLS Bank, Germany, www.gls.de
Merkur Bank, Denmark, www.merkurbank.dk
Mibanco, Banco de la Microempresa, Peru, www.mibanco.com.pe
New Resource Bank, United States, www.newresourcebank.com
ShoreBank Corporation, United States, www.shorebankcorp.com
Triodos Bank, The Netherlands, www.triodos.com
XacBank, Mongolia, www.xacbank.comTo qualify for membership, each institution has to meet three criteria:
- They are independent and licensed banks with a focus on retail customers;
- with a minimum balance sheet of $100 million
- and, most significantly, they should be committed to responsible financing and the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.Please, view the website of the Dutch Royal House for the speech of Princess Máxima.

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

BRAC leads anti-poverty effort in post-conflict countries http://www.brac.net/index.php?nid=438

NEW YORK, July 22, 2009 - BRAC is leading a $15 million initiative to rebuild war-torn communities in West Africa, four organisations supporting the effort announced today.

The Soros Economic Development Fund, Open Society Initiative for West Africa, Omidyar Network, and Humanity United are funding this groundbreaking initiative to support families and prevent renewed conflict.

"This investment in the people of West Africa comes at a critical time," said Stewart Paperin, president of the Soros Economic Development Fund. "With their countries emerging from devastating civil wars, this support gives people the tools to rebuild."

BRAC, one of the world's largest anti-poverty groups, is providing microfinance, health, and agricultural support in Sierra Leone and Liberia. It anticipates that over 500,000 people will benefit from these programmes.

"In the face of overwhelming need, BRAC's work has real potential to create opportunities for hundreds of thousands of families to stabilise their lives and build for the future," said Matt Bannick, managing partner of Omidyar Network. "Our investment will help catalyse this economic and social impact."

Since March, BRAC has opened 20 new microfinance branches in Sierra Leone and Liberia and will add 20 more by the end of the year. BRAC made its first loans in June. Over the next two years, it will provide financial services to tens of thousands of women, as well as agricultural supplies and training to small crop and livestock farmers. BRAC will also prepare four hundred community based health volunteers to provide ongoing essential healthcare and help fight deadly diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and cholera.

"People desperately need to earn a living," said Fazle Hasan Abed, founder and chairperson of BRAC. "Despite the many challenges these countries face, Liberia and Sierra Leone are uniquely positioned to become models for successful development in West Africa. We are committed to providing training and resources so that the poor, especially women, can unleash their capabilities as entrepreneurs and improve their livelihoods."

BRAC's work in Sierra Leone and Liberia is being funded through a combination of grants and equity, and BRAC is negotiating additional debt capital to finance the loan portfolio. This two-year pilot programme will help BRAC build a long-term sustainable strategy for integrated development in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

http://brac.tv please help us track how BRAC is changing africa
older refs- Liberia 1

BRAC's 2008 Report is at http://www.brac.net/useruploads/files/BRAC%20Annual%20Report%20-%202008.pdf

Other Africa BRAC highlights http://www.brac.net/usa/bracs_work_africa.php
Jan09:

BRAC, a leading international development organization founded in Bangladesh announced that it has successfully raised $62.6 million of debt capital to provide microfinance loans to poor borrowers in Tanzania, Uganda and Southern Sudan. The BRAC Africa Loan Fund provides long-term, local-currency funding that will enable BRAC to scale up its microfinance operations to reach over 700,000 borrowers through over 200 branches across the three countries. The Fund represents the largest single financing to date of a southern hemisphere development organization expanding into Africa.

The Fund will aggregate US dollar loans from investors through a special purpose company and use the capital to make local currency loans to BRAC Uganda, BRAC Tanzania and BRAC Southern Sudan over a period of seven years. A second and final closing is planned during the first half of 2009 to reach the Fund’s target of $74.0 million.

1 Uganda April 09: BRAC Uganda has emerged as the largest NGO in the country, employing close to 1400 staff, 97% of them being Ugandan. Mr. Islam also explained how BRAC Uganda currently operates 123 offices in 37 districts across the country, impacting the lives of half a million people. more refs 1 2 3 4

About BRAC Tanzania:
In June 2006, BRAC began operating its Microfinance Program in three regions in Tanzania - Dar-es-salam, Arusha and Coast. In the past year, approximately USD 4 million in loans has been distributed through this program. The microfinance program includes outreach and services at the village level and is specifically focused on women. BRAC leveraged this organization capital to develop extension service cadre in health, agriculture and livestock initiatives. Currently, there are over 350 BRAC staff members working in Tanzania.

Click here to read BRAC Tanzania's 2008 Annual Report (pdf)
Microfinance Program
Established in June 2006 and has undergone major expansion since January 2007
Operates 41 branches in seven districts
Organized 1,481 groups
Mobilized 39,513 members; 25,518 of whom have borrowed
Disbursed over USD 4 million in loans
Employed 40 branch managers and 164 community organizers

Health Program
Established in January 2007
Operates 20 branches
Mobilized 26,210 community members to participate in health education
Trained 200 CHVs

Agriculture Program
Established in January 2007
Operates 15 branches
Distributed 48,625 kg in seeds
Trained 243 model farmers and extension workers
Serves 1,448 general farmers

Poultry and Livestock Program
Established in January 2007
Operates 20 branches
Trained 200 volunteers
Employed 350 staff members (95 percent are Tanzanian and over 95 percent are local women)
Signed an agreement with the Government of Tanzania’s relevant ministries to ensure adequate vaccination supply

Sierra Leone April 09: BRAC Sierra Leone has now set up 10 microfinance branches and launched its health, agriculture and livestock programs

S.Sudan March 2009: BRAC currently operates 17 microfinance branches in the country, reaching 14,000 members and is piloting initiatives in livelihoods, health and education.

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Friday, May 15, 2009

headline stats from new book on brac

BRAC is the biggest non-governmental, nonprofit organization in the world – in terms of its budget, its staff and the number of people it reaches. BRAC is the biggest international NGO in Afghanistan, working very effectively in some of the most difficult areas. BRAC has broad-based development programs in East Africa and in countries recovering from war: Sudan, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
BRAC provides more than $1 billion a year in micro loans to poor people; the repayment rate is more than 97%.
BRAC pioneered a program for diagnosing and treating tuberculosis that is now used worldwide. BRAC treats almost 100,000 TB patients a year and has a 92% cure rate.
BRAC operates more primary schools in Bangladesh than all the nursery, primary and secondary schools in England combined.
BRAC’s dairy processes more than 70,000 liters of milk a day. The milk is produced entirely by villagers in every district of Bangladesh, none owning more than one or two cows.
Students from across the world attend the BRAC University; thousands of villagers use its libraries and its on-line computer centers. The BRAC Bank has become one of the largest and most trusted in Bangladesh in only eight years of operation, and its lending concentrates almost entirely on small enterprise development, one notch up from microfinance.

Help us with worldwide brand seeding of 5000 youth goodwill ambassador network uniting bangladesh and worldwide mapmakers of microeconomics, social business entrepreneur networking and future capitalism's sustainability investments -next project meeting all day+1 birthday party with dr yunus , dhaka, 29 June 2009 - help us track the best for the world news that brac and grameen are helping peoples celebrate-
spring 09.1 IDCOL to Produce Solar Panels in Bangladesh Energy Bangla - ‎Apr 24, 2009‎

The IDCOL CEO said the programme is being implemented through 15 partner organisations (POs) -- Grameen Shakti, BRAC Foundation, Srizony Bangladesh, ...

.2009 open planning

BRAC headlines of 2009 include-Fazle Abed attended CGI planning meet: people included William Jefferson Clinton, 42nd President of the United States and Founding Chairman of Clinton Global Initiative, Justin Yifu Lin, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank, Margaret McKenna, President of The Wal-Mart Foundation, Dr. James Mwangi, Managing Director and Chief Executive of Officer of Equity Bank Limited, Pamela Passman, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Corporation
===================planning how 5000 youth ambassadors worldwide can exchnage yunus and abed and other microeconomic leaders replications
======================
there are obviously many sub-permutations of issues vital to 5000 youth ambassadors , I wish interns in bangkadesh would bring a plaque with their university crest and nail it to the hotel reception wall declaring their university to be virtually associated with dhaka. the idea that a 3 year undergrad course needs to be done in one bricks ad mortared expensive place is not sustainable for any undergraduate of development economics - we needs to turn one of the dhaka hotels into a sort of club med for interns of dhaka as the open uni of smba - by the way the former first lady of s.africa already calls dhaka the open uni of microcredit.

It would be fantastic if we could pool knowhow on how to make interns and other adventure learning tours bettter and better - I believe this can be a fantastic student led social business - its relevant to exploring at least 4 deep microcredits and epicentres of smba as well as their interactions - 3 are in dhaka : grameen, brac, and asa - all in the same area; one is in kenya; if anyone can get to kenya in march 2010 that's when a once in a lifetime microecreditsummit comes to nairobi; kena has the world;'s first youth and mothers mobile micropecredit; it may yet be enough to empower obama's foreign assistment pledges- notwithstanding briliant efforts by finca, brac and microloanfoundation among others I dont see any other millennium goal map connected by microeconomits for africa emerging without connecting through what jamii bora can help collaborative multiply but look forward to other maps if you have them

.for june 29 we are thinking that we will probably also find a very few interns who are already there and marry what they are doing in with june 29; we have also been promised by the end of may access to all records of interns that have ever been to grameen; we'd like ambassador5000 to connect that and intern records of other microcredits - we are searching for those young people who found internship in bangladesh a life changing experience that in some way they wish to contnuouly social business network- once we have a few common resources like a web of 1000 social busienss http://socialbusiness.tv/ which new york youth pledged to in januray all these jigsaws may come together at the same time but we need young people in the modst of assembling the big pictures

I believe I am correct in saying that mostofa is available during the month mid june to late july to help optimise any inteviews or visits you might want; of course he needs to confirm that and also has local family responsibilities but it is my assumption that integrating inten programs and youth ambassador 5000 and interviews that future capitalist journalists want to make with grameen global brand inside is work that mostofa with lamiya's team will be doing for a long time to come-

3.0 that is partly why we filmed last summer grameen inside and made 9 hours of transcripts before the whole world started making up glossier stories; we wanted to see the view of lifelong workers at bgrameen before the glossy broadcast story; at least that is what back in january 2008 we (sofia, modjtaba, mostofa, mark and I) asked dr yunus permission to do. new york jan anmd london fe archives http://www.youtube.com/caplinski

1.0 perhaps we need 2 plans - many people who are coming to dhaka june 28/9 yunus 69th birthday partyhttp://yunusforum.net/ (also the first third of a century of bangladesh's micro-up maps being shared worldwide - a new genre to be published as microeconomics future capitalism or innovating collaboration and social business entrepreneur networks) for about 4 days

but you imply a second group including mostofa and yourself who want a month in dhaka adventure learning-action plan - Paris: I understand you have the special case of the blockbuster movie work; some other people may blend this in with internship or other action research or future capitalism journalism ; ...

last summer grameen inside and made 9 hours of transcripts before the whole world started making up glossier stories; we wanted to see the view of lifelong workers at bgrameen before the glossy broadcast story; at least that is what back in january 2008 we (sofia, modjtaba, mostofa, mark and I) asked dr yunus permission to do. new york jan anmd london fe archiveshttp://www.youtube.com/caplinski

So by july 08 have 9 hours of films and transcripts available made in dhaka - examples of which I also gave to saskia but which are kept in the grameen video library which goes back 30 years and is alongside the nobel permanent exhibition ; in other words depending how deeply you want to search the media archives there is at least a week's material to look at on just quarter of a floor of grammen bank; also one of the people attending on june 29 is a photoographer who has gone to a sample of everywhere with dr yunus whom mostofa can introduce you to- it is impossible to understand the female and youth magic of microcredit without understanding what was involved in setting up womens circles/centres in 1976- the greatest investment in open knowledge infrastructure a nation has ever made making silicon valley look pretty bogus in its roots; and for a modern rendering of where that leapfrogs to I attach a concept I was given by http://grameensolutions.com/ at start of jan 08 for thiose of an IT can chnage the world mind

.healthcare snap between 2 capitals with most at stake :DC & Dhaka

please may I introduce you in various criss-crossing ways but with particular coordinates on micro-medicine and the world's top 2 sustainability investmment collaboration gravities between dc and dhaka - the 2 greatest yes we can epicentres with son of microcredit in charge in dc and fathers and mothers of microredit leading dhaka

Nalini a fulbright prize winner in dc and active in research in india that seems to have remarkable parallels to larry brilliant's; and professor in childrens medicine a george washington and her son Abhi who has just graduated there in medicine ; they both attended the GWU talk of yunus in early february where 50 other youth were given tockets I bought by alex - to mostofa in london

mostofa is a bangladesh is villager and also a london universiuty student who is central to the idea that dr yunus briefed him on last summer at microcredit bali of ambassador 5000

Youth AMB5000 is an opportunity to connect:

1 how grameen does internships and open sources micro-solutions with communities all over the world

2 how networks and uni students who support bangaleshi methods connect with other yes we can or micro up methods

3 all the other stuff that both yunus and fazle abed and other micro-solutions leadrs in dhaka go round developing hi-trust partenrships around

so it would be useful to rehearse what areas of medicine or other things interest you and mostofa can find out whetther there are any live projects going on inside grameen that currently need help or whether there are any attempts to search out partnerships which need relationship building among usa -eg earlier this month princeton students hosted an event on microcredit*microhealth -if we could replicate that some time in DC you would think we might start hunting who in NIH is interested in sustainable medicine/health care and of course when dr yunus is in dc he's usually asked to visit either bernanke on banks or hilary on healthcare - or other experts (grameen has several hundred medical staff of which about 5 are in boston at grameen america hq and the erst in bangladesh); and then 2 blocks away from grameen is brac the original vilage bursing network -new book by ian smillie freedom from want describes that

or other ways of essentially building a rural national health system as a jigsaw of hi-trust connecting pieces

I pretty quickly get out of my depth of understanding in medical areas which is also why mostofa and I want to convince people inside grameen that they need to become good at corresponding with very customised trajectories youth leaders may be on - its like huge detailed game of snap in my mind but then I am just a very simple-mided free marketmaker as many scots are

Nalini - back in britain a personal family friend is sir KP - former head of the royal academy of medicine - if you can search him and see if there is a topic in his cv that interests you then I can try and send an email between you - somehow I have to try and get cambridge university medical school connecting with dhaka but I have to find some topic that sir keith knows they do

chris.macrae @yahoo.co.uk

http://brac.tv http://hubsworld.tv

Freedom From Want: The Remarkable Success Story of BRAC, The Global Grassroots Organization that’s Winning the Fight Against Poverty April 2009 / 304 pages / Paperback / 978-1-56549-294-3 / $24.95

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mapmaker's data from the book's freedom chapters coming soon

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Freedom C0 & C2

.In 1950 , Abed's Uncle Saidul went to London as Pakistan's trade commissioner, and in 1954 Abed followed. For an 18 year old, traditional ideas about going into govenment service seemed outdtaed in the new post-colonial world, and Abed wanted to do something out of the ordinary. He still cannot explain what drew him to naval archotecture, except for the fact that it was well out of the ordinary. Soon he found himself in Glasgow. The naval archotecture course was a 4 year program with alternati ng 6 month periods in the calssroom and the shipyard, where studentls learned through hands-on experience. Afetr 6 months of basic physics and maths, he went to Yarrow and company shipyard as an apprentice draftsman, an experience he describes toay as "not that lovely". The second year, he skiipped the shipyard and started to think ahead. He was beginning to realizxe that as a naval architect he could be obliged to spend the rest of his life in Glasgow, Belfast, or Norway. He visited Norway in 1955 to take a look, and he was not impressed. he wrote to his uncle in London saying he had concluded that naval architecture was "not my line" after all. His father objected to him quitting but his uncle welcomed him back to London where he now concluded that his options lay between law and accounting

This book is about the triumph of optimism, enterprise, and common sense over despair. It is about development without bodrers., and an incredible organisation created to deal with abject poverty in a broken country. The borders BRAC has crossed are not just political borders, though those are real enough. It has breached the borders of development orthodoxy, discovering the fallacies in standard approaches to community development and demonmstrating that poverty can be pushed back dramatically if it is tackled directly. It has shown that poor, even completely destitute, women in a conservative Muslim society can learn, earn and lead. It has shown that the market can be a powerful ally in the fight against poverty. It has breached the borders of small, turning tiny experimental efforts into huge enterprises that are staffed almost exclusively by tens of thousands of villagers who once had nothing , and whose own borders were once defined by ignorance, ill health, isolation and fear.

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Freedom C1

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Freedom C3

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Freedom C4

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Freedom C5

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Freedom C6

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Freedom C7