BRAC: A creative response to the challenge for change

The many positive contributions made by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed testify to a life which has been eminently successful and a source of inspiration for others.

A golden thread that runs through his range of activities is an abiding concern for bringing about change in the lives of human beings by affording them opportunities for realizing their potential. His creative response to the challenge for change was as founder of an extraordinary NGO called BRAC. The institutions and activities sponsored and supported by BRAC reflect this concern, as these embrace, among others, education, health, human rights, the rule of law and governance. The institutions include a university, a bank, national and international enterprises, the profits of which were to be applied to promoting the pro-people and pro-poor goals of BRAC and its institutions for research and education in areas as diverse as public health, governance and development. Innovative initiatives to promote people-oriented projects aimed at creating employment and generating income include those for designing and marketing of products of traditional crafts, through outlets within the country and abroad. Programmes launched by him related to rural communities, in particular, where women derived benefits from silk production, and from milk production and distribution. Under the latter project cows were provided to rural women and the milk produced was collected and marketed in urban areas.

It was our liberation war which had moved Sir Fazle to respond to the needs of the survivors, including their rehabilitation. Thus, he chose to devote his extraordinary talents to serve his fellow human beings, in particular the poor and the disadvantaged, rather than to pursue a successful career in the conventional sense. This had led to his forming BRAC, which has earned respect and admiration for its truly impressive role in Bangladesh and many other countries. It is acknowledged today as the largest NGO in the world. A distinctive feature of BRAC's projects and institutions is that they arewell-managed and efficient and structured to be ultimately self-sustaining. 

Institutional recognition of Sir Fazle success not only led to BRAC being entrusted with programmes in other countries, but to his insights and experience being drawn upon as a member of international commissions, such as the Commission for Global Empowerment of the Poor, in which along with colleagues such as Amartya Sen, Madeline Albright and Helen Clark, he put forward ideas for institutionally promoting empowerment of the poor on a global scale. It is noteworthy that for the implementation of that programme, Bangladesh, in particular with BRAC-related institutions has begun to play a role in developing strategies and training those who would be actively involved.

The celebration of his 80th birthday provides an opportunity to countless persons, who have benefited from his ideas and initiatives to join those, who have been privileged to be associated with him, to congratulate him and wish him a long life so that he may continue to provide visionary leadership and inspiration for many years to come.

Note: On April 27, 2024, we commemorate Sir Fazle Hasan Abed's 88th birthday. This piece was originally published in an in-house publication titled 'Sir Fazle Hasan Abed Sangbardhona Grantha,' released on April 27, 2016, on the occasion of his 80th birthday.