This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject , potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral.(August 2024) |
A list of awards granted to Muhammad Yunus, Bangladeshi entrepreneur, banker, economist, politician and civil society leader.
![]() |
Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to impoverished borrowers who typically lack collateral, steady employment, and a verifiable credit history. It is designed to support entrepreneurship and alleviate poverty. Many recipients are illiterate, and therefore unable to complete paperwork required to get conventional loans. As of 2009 an estimated 74 million people held microloans that totaled nearly US$40 billion. Grameen Bank reports that repayment success rates are between 95 and 98 percent. The first economist who had invented the idea of micro loans was The Very Reverend Jonathan Swift in the 1720’s. Microcredit is part of microfinance, which provides a wider range of financial services, especially savings accounts, to the poor. Modern microcredit is generally considered to have originated with the Grameen Bank founded in Bangladesh in 1983 by their current Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus. Many traditional banks subsequently introduced microcredit despite initial misgivings. The United Nations declared 2005 the International Year of Microcredit. As of 2012, microcredit is widely used in developing countries and is presented as having "enormous potential as a tool for poverty alleviation." Microcredit is a tool that can possibly be helpful to reduce feminization of poverty in developing countries.
Grameen Bank is a microfinance specialized community development bank founded in Bangladesh. It provides small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral.
Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist, entrepreneur, politician, and civil society leader, who has been serving as the 5th Chief Adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh since 8 August 2024. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. Yunus has received several other national and international honors, including the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010.
Sixteen Decisions is a documentary film directed and produced by Gayle Ferraro, exploring the impact of the Grameen Bank on impoverished women in Bangladesh. The bank provides micro loans of about $60 each to the poor, as well as promoting a social charter that gave the film its title.
Grameen Foundation, founded as Grameen Foundation USA, also known as "GFUSA", is a global 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, that uses digital technology and data to understand very poor people, in detail, and offer them—and the entire ecosystem of agencies and actors surrounding them—empowering tools that meet and elevate their everyday realities. Its CEO is Zubaida Bai. Grameen Foundation's mission is, "To enable the poor, especially women, to create a world without poverty and hunger." According to the OECD, Grameen Foundation’s financing for 2019 development increased by 33% to US$45.5 million.
Grameen Telecom (GTC) was established in Bangladesh by Muhammad Yunus with a partial stake in Grameenphone (GP) and registered as a Not-for-Profit Company, Limited by Guarantee, under Section 28 of the Companies Act, 1994. GTC launched the program of Village Phone that enables rural poor to own a mobile phone and turn it into a profit-making venture. The vision behind the village phone program was formulated by Iqbal Quadir, who was convinced that a mobile phone could become a source of income. Quadir worked with Yunus and the Norwegian company Telenor to make the program a reality.
Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty is an autobiography of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus. The book describes Yunus' early life, moving into his college years, and into his years as a professor at Chittagong University. While a professor at Chittagong University, Yunus began to take notice of the extreme poverty of the villagers around him. In 1976, Yunus incorporated the help of Maimuna Begum to collect data of people in Jobra who were living in poverty. Most of these impoverished people would take a loan from moneylenders to buy some raw material, using that raw material to create some product, and then selling back the good to the moneylender to repay the loan, earning a very meager profit. One woman interviewed made no more than two cents per day creating bamboo stools using this system. The list Begum brought back to Yunus named 42 women who were living on credit of 856 taka.
The Seoul Peace Prize was established in 1990 as a biennial recognition with monetary award to commemorate the success of the 24th Summer Olympic Games held in Seoul, South Korea, an event in which 160 nations from across the world took part, creating harmony and friendship. The Seoul Peace Prize was established to crystallize the wishes of the Korean people for peace in the Korean peninsula and the rest of the world. The nominating group, the Seoul Peace Prize Cultural Foundation, consists of 500 Korean nationals and 800 internationals. The awardee receives a diploma, a plaque and honorarium of US$200,000.
Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed, also known as Sajeeb Wazed Joy, is a Bangladeshi businessman and politician. He is a member of the Bangladesh Awami League and served as an advisor to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on information and communication technology affairs. Sajeeb is widely known for spreading misinformation, In December 2022, three UN Special Rapporteurs criticized him for allegedly spreading misinformation.
Nagorik Shakti or Citizens' Power was a proposed political party in Bangladesh. It was conceived by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. Yunus communicated his ideas to the people of the nation and asked for feedback by writing a total of three letters addressed to the citizens in the prominent national daily The Daily Star. Yunus discontinued his venture in 2007 citing lack of interested eligible candidates.
Grameen Fund is a not-for-profit company in Bangladesh established by Muhammad Yunus to provide risk capital to small and medium enterprises (SME) beyond the scope of Grameen Bank's objectives of providing microcredit to the very poor. Incorporated on 17 January 1994, Grameen Fund started operation in February 1994, inheriting 40 projects of Grameen bank with assets of 391 million Bangladeshi taka investmented in small industries, fisheries and agriculture. Its lending capital is provided by Grameen Bank and other institutions like Calvert Foundation. From the first Calvert Foundation investment, approximately 6,000 permanent jobs have been created or maintained in agriculture, engineering, poultry, dairy, fishery, and handicrafts sectors.
The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of both commercial and non-profit ventures. It was first established by Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning founder of Grameen Bank. Most of the organizations in the Grameen group have central offices at the Grameen Bank Complex in Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Grameen Bank started to diversify in the late 1980s when it began attending to unutilized or underutilized fishing ponds, as well as irrigation pumps like deep tubewells. In 1989, these diversified interests started growing into separate organizations, as the fisheries project became Grameen Fisheries Foundation and the irrigation project became Grameen Krishi Foundation.
1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1984th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 984th year of the 2nd millennium, the 84th year of the 20th century, and the 5th year of the 1980s decade.
Jerald Posman is Vice President for Administration and Finance at the City College of New York, a senior college of the City University of New York. Prior to that, he served most recently as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for six and a half years at York College, City University of New York. He received his undergraduate degree in English literature from the City College of New York and MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Grameen America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit microfinance organization based in New York City. It was founded by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus in 2008. Grameen America is run by former Avon Chairman and CEO Andrea Jung. The organization provides loans, savings programs, financial education, and credit establishment to women who live in poverty in the United States. All loans must be used to build small businesses.
The Yunus Centre, in Dhaka, Bangladesh is a think tank for issues related to social business, working in the field of poverty alleviation and sustainability. It is 'aimed primarily at promoting and disseminating Professor Yunus' philosophy, with a special focus on social business'. As of 2023 it is chaired by Prof. Muhammad Yunus, and its executive director is Ms. Lamiya Morshed.
Dr. Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
"Hear Me Now" (2006) is the first single by European band the Green Children. As with their previous albums, a percentage of the proceeds were donated to The Green Children Foundation, their charity, which benefits orphaned children and animals in need.
Nurjahan Begum is an advisor to the 2024 Bangladesh interim government.