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Fazle Hasan Abed

Fazle Hasan Abed (Bengali: ফজলে হাসান আবেদ) is a Bangladeshi social worker, and the founder and chairman of BRAC (formerly, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee). For his outstanding contributions to social improvement, he has received the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the UNDP Mahbub Ul Haq Award. Abed is a member of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, the first global initiative to focus specificially on the link between exclusion, poverty and law.

Early life

Abed was born in 1936 in Sylhet (now in Bangladesh). His father was a wealthy landowner. Abed studied accountancy in University of Dhaka and later in University of Glasgow in Britain. After graduation, he joined Shell Oil as a financial executive, and was posted in Chittagong in erstwhile East Pakistan. ^[1] In 1970, Abed joined relief efforts to help the people affected by the 1970 Bhola cyclone. Later in 1971, during the Bangladesh Liberation War, he quit his job and went to London to raise support and funds for the independence movement.^[2]

Formation of BRAC

Abed returned after the war to the newly independent Bangladesh. The economy was in ruins. Millions of refugees returned to Bangladesh from India. Abed set up BRAC (formerly Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) to rehabilitate returning refugees in a remote area in a northeastern district of Bangladesh. BRAC then began dealing with the long-term task of improving the living conditions of the rural poor. Abed believed that "the poor cannot be expected to organise themselves on their own because of economic insecurity, illiteracy and general lack of confidence. The process of social mobilisation, he felt, must be accompanied by measures to remove these handicaps."^[2]In three decades, BRAC grew to become the largest Non-Governmental Development Organisation (NGO) in the world in terms of the scale and diversity of its interventions.

Professional positions

Abed has held the following positions:^[3]

• 2002 - Global Chairperson, International Network of Alternative Financial Institutions (INAFI) International.
• 2001 - Chairman, Board of Directors, BRAC Bank Limited.
• 2001 - President, The Governing Board of BRAC University.
• 2000 - Chairman, Governing Body, BRAC.
• 2000 - Chair, Finance & Audit Committee, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Banos, Philippines.
• 1999 - Member, Board of Governors, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Banos, Philippines.
• 1998 - Member, Policy Advisory Group, The Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP), The World Bank, Washington, DC.
• 1994 - Member, Board of Trustees, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dhaka
• 1993 - Chairperson, Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), a human rights organisation
• 1992 - Chairman, NGO Forum for Drinking Water Supply & Sanitation
• 1990 - Chairman, ‘Campaign for Popular Education’ (CAMPE), an NGO network on education.
• 1981-82 Visiting Scholar, Harvard Institute of International Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
• 1982-86 Senior Fellow, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).
• 1982-86 Member, Board of Trustees, BIDS.
• 1982-86 Chairman, Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB).
• 1986-91 Member, World Bank NGO Committee, Geneva, Switzerland.
• 1987-90 Chairman, South Asia Partnership.
• 1987-90 Member, International Commission on Health Research for Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
• 1992-93 Member, Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation
• 1998-2004 Member, Board of Governors, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex University, U.K.

Awards

• Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, 1980.^[4]
• The United Nations Development Programme Mahbub ul Haq Award, 2004, for his outstanding contribution to human development. ^[5]
• The Olof Palme Award of Sweden, 2001: For "his pioneering work in combating poverty and empowering the poor, especially women. This has been done by initiating and developing BRAC into one of the world’s largest NGO." ^[6]
• The Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership, administered by the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College.

References

1. ^ THE STARS OF ASIA -- FINANCIERS: Fazle Hasan Abed, BusinessWeek, July 8, 2002.
2. ^ ^{a b} People at BRAC - Founder and Chairperson
3. ^ :: People at BRAC - Founder and Chairperson ::
4. ^ 1980 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership - Fazle Hasan Abed, Ramon Magsaysay Foundation.
5. ^ Fazle Hasan Abed wins UNDP Award, The Daily Star, 18 October, 2004.
6. ^ Olof Palme Award, Palme Center. The citation in Swedish language reads, Fazle Hasan Abed, Bangladesh, grundare av BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee). För hans arbete med att bekämpa fattigdom och stärka de fattigas, särskilt kvinnornas, makt över sina liv.