Muhammad Yunus

Bangladeshi banker, economist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient

Muhammad Yunus (Bengali: মুহাম্মদ ইউনুস Muhammod Iunus) (born June 28, 1940) is a Bangladeshi banker and economist. He is the developer and founder of the concept of microcredit. In 2006, Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

One day our grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty was like.
The only way to definitively eradicate the pandemic is to have a vaccine that can be administered to all inhabitants of the planet... To ensure the availability of the vaccines to all people on the planet almost at the same time, it has to be free from ownership. To do so we intend to make a global pharmaceutical social business operational as soon as possible. (4 July 2020)

Quotes edit

  • If you are born into a poor family, if you are a woman you have seen the worst of poverty. In a cultural way in the families in Bangladesh it's the women who eats last. So if you have a scarcity in the family … she misses out so everything comes in the raw deal for her. So , given a chance she works very hard to make a change to improve her life. And by training she is the most efficient manager of scarce resources. Because with the little resource she has, she has to stretch it as much as she can to look after the children, look after the family and everything else..unlike men - men want to enjoy right away. Whatever he got, whatever tiny bit of thing he got he doesn't care for much what's coming up.
    • "Interview with Prof. Muhammad Yunus" Australian Broadcasting Corporation (25 March 1997)
  • 'I believe that "government", as we know it today, should pull out of most things except for law enforcement and justice, national defense and foreign policy, and let the private sector, a "Grameenized private sector", a social-consciousness-driven private sector, take over their other functions.'
    • Autobiography : Banker to the Poor (2001)
  • To me poor people are like bonsai trees. When you plant the best seed of the tallest tree in a flower-pot, you get a replica of the tallest tree, only inches tall. There is nothing wrong with the seed you planted, only the soil-base that is too inadequate. Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong in their seeds. Simply, society never gave them the base to grow on. All it needs to get the poor people out of poverty for us to create an enabling environment for them. Once the poor can unleash their energy and creativity, poverty will disappear very quickly.
    • Creating a World without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism (2007)
  • Poor people always pay back their loans. It's us, the creators of institutions and rules, who keep creating trouble for them.
    • Grameen Bank II: Designed to Open New Possibilities (2002)
  • Poverty has been created by the economic and social system that we have designed for the world. It is the institutions that we have built, and feel so proud of, which created poverty.
    • "Eliminating Poverty Through Market-Based Social Entrepreneurship" in Global Urban Development Magazine (May 2005)
  • I will not spend the money for myself. I will rather spend it in special business on a no-profit-no-loss policy. We will also establish an eye hospital where even beggars will be given treatment at the cost of Taka 10-20.
    • The Daily Star (14 October 2006)
  • We will make yogurt with all kinds of nutritious elements. We want to provide nutrition to the poor and children.
    • The Daily Star (14 October 2006)
  • All human beings have an innate skill — survival skill. The fact that poor are still alive is a proof of their ability to survive. We do not need to teach them how to survive. They know this already.
  • What happens to the rest of the world? It’s as if the rest of the world will be forgotten... This is a vaccine that is needed by 8 billion people. What happens to poor people? What happens to poor countries who cannot afford to pay the prices that they’ll be charging in the rich countries? With social business, shareholders don’t want to make any profit out of it so no dividend is taken from the company and we can reduce the cost and produce anywhere.
  • I believe that, ultimately, the only way to definitively eradicate the pandemic is to have a vaccine that can be administered to all inhabitants of the planet... The effectiveness of the upcoming vaccination campaign will depend on its universality. To ensure the availability of the vaccines to all people on the planet almost at the same time, it has to be free from ownership. To do so we intend to make a global pharmaceutical social business operational as soon as possible. I am looking for partners to help us achieve this goal... It has to be freed from commercial interest. The polio vaccine was declared as a common good, not owned by anybody. Why not (have) the corona vaccine follow the same path?

About edit

  • Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu and actor George Clooney are among more than 100 people who have signed an appeal for COVID-19 vaccines to be declared a global common good and made widely available. The appeal is led by the founder of the microcredit movement Muhammad Yunus, also a Nobel peace prize winner, who said some pharmaceutical companies had declared vaccines would be provided to rich countries in Europe and the United States first. There is currently no vaccine against COVID-19, but more than 100 are in development around the world as drugmakers race to combat the pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 people globally. Yunus said he was also planning to create an open-source company to produce vaccines around the world and was open to discussion with governments and pharmaceutical companies on how to set it up.

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