/CNW/ - Microcredit pioneer and Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Muhammad Yunus founded the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh more than
25 years ago. Since then, millions of rural poor — mostly women — have
received small loans for self-employment projects that have helped lift
their families out of poverty. Yunus will be at Canadas International
Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa September 2 to discuss how
microcredit and social business can help in creating a poverty-free
world. The Grameen model has been replicated in more than 100
countries, and microlending has become an important tool in the fight
against global poverty. IDRC has worked with Yunus and the Grameen Bank
on a number of initiatives linking the use of information and
communication technologies to poverty reduction in rural Bangladesh.
When: Thursday, September 2, 2010, 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Where:
IDRC, 150 Kent Street (Corner of Albert), 8th floor
Muhammad Yunus is managing director of Bangladeshs Grameen Bank. A
trained economist, he founded the bank in 1983 to promote the concept of
microcredit—small, low-interest loans that can make a big difference in
the lives of the poor and marginalized. His anti-poverty efforts were
recognized in 2006 when he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the bank
for their efforts to create economic and social development from
below. He currently serves as chair of the Yunus Centre and is a
member of the United Nations Foundation. His books include Banker
to the Poor, Creating a World Without Poverty, and Building
Social Business. Yunus is the recipient of the World Food Prize,
the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Bangladeshs Independence
Day Award.
Yunus lecture is the seventh in the Speakers of Renown series,
which is being held throughout 2010 to mark IDRCs 40th
anniversary. Upcoming headliners include South Africas Trevor Manuel,
who went from anti-apartheid activist to one of the forces that made
that countrys economy one of the most robust in Africa; Professor M. S.
Swaminathan, the father of Indias Green Revolution, named by TIME
Magazine as one of the 20 most influential Asians of the 20th
century; and Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, head of
the United Nations Development Programme, and named by Forbes as
one of the most powerful women in the world.
This event is now full and registration is closed. Journalists
and the public can join in the conversation through Twitter
(#IDRC) and Facebook.
For more information and the live webcast, visit www.idrc.ca/events-yunus.
About Canadas International Development Research Centre
To achieve self-reliance, poor communities need answers to questions
like: How can we grow more and healthier food? Protect our health?
Create jobs? IDRC supports research in developing countries to answer
these questions. IDRC also encourages sharing this knowledge with
policymakers, other researchers, and communities around the world. The
result is innovative, lasting local solutions that aim to bring choice
and change to those who need it most.
