The founder of a rural development organization active in 11 countries, Fazle Hasan Abed of Bangladesh, is the winner of the $250,000 World Food Prize. Abed’s organization, originally known as the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, “has been hailed as the world’s most effective anti-poverty organization in the world,” said the foundation that awards the annual prize. It said BRAC gave “nearly 150 million people the opportunity for enhanced food security and a pathway out of poverty.”
“Its agricultural and development innovations have improved food security for millions and contributed to a significant decline in poverty levels through direct impacts to farmers and small communities across the globe,” said the World Food Prize Foundation. “Today BRAC operates 18 financially and socially profitable enterprises, across health, agriculture, livestock, fisheries, education, green energy, printing and retail sectors, and has been responsible for extraordinary advancements in the poultry, seed, and dairy industries in Bangladesh and other countries in which it operates in Africa.
Abed said “the real heroes in our story are the poor themselves and, in particular, women struggling in poverty. In situations of extreme poverty, it is usually the women in the family who have to make do with scarce resources. When we saw this at BRAC, we realised that women needed to be the agents of change in our development effort.”
BRAC lists its priorities as “focus on women, grassroots empowerment, health and education, empowering farmers, inclusive financial services, and self-sustaining solutions.” Besides Bangladesh, BRAC operates in Uganda, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Liberia, Haiti, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. The group describes itself as “the world’s largest NGO.”