00:35
What
it means to be ultra-poor goes beyond the monetary definition that we're all
familiar with:living on less than two dollars a day.
It
goes even beyond not having assets like livestock or land. To be ultra-poor
means to be stripped of your dignity,purpose and self-worth.
It
means living in isolation, because you're a burden to your own community. It
means being unable to imagine a better future for yourself and your family.By
the end of 2019, about 400 million people were living in ultra-poverty
worldwide.That's more than the populations of the United States and Canada
combined.
And
when calamity strikes, whether it's a pandemic, a natural disaster or a manmade
crisis, these numbers spike astronomically higher.
01:28
My
father, Fazle Abed, gave up a corporate career to establish BRAC here in
Bangladesh in 1972.
Bangladesh
was a wreck, having just gone through a devastating cyclone followed by a
brutal war for independence.
Working
with the poorest of the poor, my father realized that poverty was more than the
lack of income and assets. It was also a lack of hope. People were trapped in
poverty, because they felt their condition was immutable. Poverty, to them, was
like the sun and the moon --something given to them by God.For poverty
reduction programs to succeed, they would need to instill hope and self-worth so
that, with a little support, people could lift themselves out of poverty. BRAC
went on to pioneer the graduation approach, a solution to ultra-poverty that
addresses both income poverty and the poverty of hope.
02:27
The
approach works primarily with women, because women are the most affected by
ultra-poverty but also the ones most likely to pull themselves and their
families out of it. Over a two-year period,we essentially do four things.
One,
we meet a woman's basic needs by giving her food or cash, ensuring the minimum
to survive.
Two,
we move her towards a decent livelihood by giving her an asset, like livestock,and
training her to earn money from it.
Three,
we train her to save, budget and invest her new wealth.
And
four, we help to integrate her socially, first into groups of women like her and
then into her community.
Each
of these elements is key to the success of the others, but the real magic is
the hope and sense of possibility the women develop through the close
mentorship they receive.
03:24
Let me
tell you about Jorina.Jorina was born in a remote village in northern
Bangladesh.She never went to school, and at the age of 15, she was married off
to an abusive husband. He eventually abandoned her, leaving her with no income and
two children who were not in school and were severely malnourished. With no one
to turn to for help, she had no hope.
Jorina
joined BRAC's Graduation program in 2005. She received a dollar a week, two
cows, enterprise training
and a
weekly visit from a mentor. She began to build her assets, but most
importantly, she began to imagine a better future for herself and her children.
If you
were visit Jorina's village today, you would find that she runs the largest
general store in her area. She will proudly show you the land she bought and
the house she built.
Since
we began this program in 2002,two million Bangladeshi women have lifted
themselves and their families out of ultra-poverty.That's almost nine million
people.The program, which costs 500 dollars per household, runs for only two
years,but the impact goes well beyond that.
04:40
Researchers
at the London School of Economics found that even seven years after entering
the program,
92
percent of participants had maintained or increased their income, assets and
consumption.
Esther
Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, the MIT economists who won the Nobel Prize last
year (2019), led multicountry evaluations that identified graduation as one of
the most effective ways to break the poverty trap.
But my
father wasn't content to have found a solution that worked for some people. He
always wanted to know whether we were being ambitious enough. in terms of
scale. So when we achieved nationwide scale in Bangladesh, he wanted to know
how we could scale it globally. And that has to involve governments.
Governments
already dedicate billions of dollars on poverty reduction programs. But so much
of that money is wasted, because these programs either don't reach the poorest,
and even the ones that do fail to have significant long-term impact.
05.45
We are
working to engage governments to help them to adopt and scale graduation
programs themselves,
maximizing
the impact of the billions of dollars they already allocate to fight
ultra-poverty.
Our
plan is to help another 21 million people lift themselves out of ultra-poverty in
eight countries over the next six years with BRAC teams on-site and embedded in
each country.
In
July of 2019, my father was diagnosed with terminal brain cancerand given four
months to live.
As he
transitioned out of BRAC after leading the organization for 47 years, he
reminded us that throughout his life, he saw optimism triumph over despair, that
when you light the spark of self-belief in people, even the poorest can
transform their lives.
My
father passed away in December. 2019.He lit that spark for millions of people,and
in the final days of his life, he implored us to continue to do so for millions
more.
This
opportunity is ours for the taking, sp let's stop imagining a world without
ultra-poverty and start building that world together. Thank You.
We are witness to
monumental human progress. Over the past few decades,
the expansion of the global marketplace has lifted a third of the world's
population out of extreme poverty.Yet we are also witness to an astounding
failure.Our efforts to lift people up have left behind those in the harshest
forms of poverty-the ultra-poor.
00:35
What
it means to be ultra-poor goes beyond the monetary definition that we're all
familiar with:living on less than two dollars a day.
It
goes even beyond not having assets like livestock or land. To be ultra-poor
means to be stripped of your dignity,purpose and self-worth.
It
means living in isolation, because you're a burden to your own community. It
means being unable to imagine a better future for yourself and your family.By
the end of 2019, about 400 million people were living in ultra-poverty
worldwide.That's more than the populations of the United States and Canada
combined.
And
when calamity strikes, whether it's a pandemic, a natural disaster or a manmade
crisis, these numbers spike astronomically higher.
01:28
My
father, Fazle Abed, gave up a corporate career to establish BRAC here in
Bangladesh in 1972.
Bangladesh
was a wreck, having just gone through a devastating cyclone followed by a
brutal war for independence.
Working
with the poorest of the poor, my father realized that poverty was more than the
lack of income and assets. It was also a lack of hope. People were trapped in
poverty, because they felt their condition was immutable. Poverty, to them, was
like the sun and the moon --something given to them by God.For poverty
reduction programs to succeed, they would need to instill hope and self-worth so
that, with a little support, people could lift themselves out of poverty. BRAC
went on to pioneer the graduation approach, a solution to ultra-poverty that
addresses both income poverty and the poverty of hope.
02:27
The
approach works primarily with women, because women are the most affected by
ultra-poverty but also the ones most likely to pull themselves and their
families out of it. Over a two-year period,we essentially do four things.
One,
we meet a woman's basic needs by giving her food or cash, ensuring the minimum
to survive.
Two,
we move her towards a decent livelihood by giving her an asset, like livestock,and
training her to earn money from it.
Three,
we train her to save, budget and invest her new wealth.
And
four, we help to integrate her socially, first into groups of women like her and
then into her community.
Each
of these elements is key to the success of the others, but the real magic is
the hope and sense of possibility the women develop through the close
mentorship they receive.
03:24
Let me
tell you about Jorina.Jorina was born in a remote village in northern
Bangladesh.She never went to school, and at the age of 15, she was married off
to an abusive husband. He eventually abandoned her, leaving her with no income and
two children who were not in school and were severely malnourished. With no one
to turn to for help, she had no hope.
Jorina
joined BRAC's Graduation program in 2005. She received a dollar a week, two
cows, enterprise training
and a
weekly visit from a mentor. She began to build her assets, but most
importantly, she began to imagine a better future for herself and her children.
If you
were visit Jorina's village today, you would find that she runs the largest
general store in her area. She will proudly show you the land she bought and
the house she built.
Since
we began this program in 2002,two million Bangladeshi women have lifted
themselves and their families out of ultra-poverty.That's almost nine million
people.The program, which costs 500 dollars per household, runs for only two
years,but the impact goes well beyond that.
04:40
Researchers
at the London School of Economics found that even seven years after entering
the program,
92
percent of participants had maintained or increased their income, assets and
consumption.
Esther
Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, the MIT economists who won the Nobel Prize last
year (2019), led multicountry evaluations that identified graduation as one of
the most effective ways to break the poverty trap.
But my
father wasn't content to have found a solution that worked for some people. He
always wanted to know whether we were being ambitious enough. in terms of
scale. So when we achieved nationwide scale in Bangladesh, he wanted to know
how we could scale it globally. And that has to involve governments.
Governments
already dedicate billions of dollars on poverty reduction programs. But so much
of that money is wasted, because these programs either don't reach the poorest,
and even the ones that do fail to have significant long-term impact.
05.45
We are
working to engage governments to help them to adopt and scale graduation
programs themselves,
maximizing
the impact of the billions of dollars they already allocate to fight
ultra-poverty.
Our
plan is to help another 21 million people lift themselves out of ultra-poverty in
eight countries over the next six years with BRAC teams on-site and embedded in
each country.
In
July of 2019, my father was diagnosed with terminal brain cancerand given four
months to live.
As he
transitioned out of BRAC after leading the organization for 47 years, he
reminded us that throughout his life, he saw optimism triumph over despair, that
when you light the spark of self-belief in people, even the poorest can
transform their lives.
My
father passed away in December. 2019.He lit that spark for millions of people,and
in the final days of his life, he implored us to continue to do so for millions
more.
This
opportunity is ours for the taking, so let's stop imagining a world without
ultra-poverty and start building that world together. Thank You.
--------------------------------------
related background research ultra poor at brac's institutional depository
