when it comes to uniting 8 billion brains sustainably, english has advanages and disadvantage;s it went from the poetry of bard 1 to way admiistrators claimed to use scientifiuc method to (at peak) boss over 25% of the world population; suddenly bankrupted by world war 2 if you would like to see what 1 billion asian women did about this look at their toop 30 coperation ideas at abed mooc; if you want to see back in 1843 is both how ideas first described analytic machines as artificial (ie man-made not nature made) and how this might of integrated with the economists founder in 1843 of systems queen voctoria needed to humanise her empire you might start at economistdaiory.com (you should know that james hiuself doied in calcutta of diarrhea - and it took 112 yeras to massively network parental solutions to diarheas as number 1 killer in tropics) ; if you want to see today's views you might start at bard.solar or economistlearning.com or alumnisat.com or tell us where you like to start) rsvp chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk
Friends of Fazle Abed study world class scaling of what we now call UN Sustainability Goals but Abed in 1972 first called Goal 1 Poverty alleviation when he founded BRA-C (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Collabs so that Bangladesh became the first nation empowered by poorest village women. Start with 3 favorite wESG (womens Entrepreneurial Scaling Goals : human collaborations of 100K ::1billion :: 50million

  • *** 100000 lives matter eg 5.1 metavillage= 1972

  • ...***1billion girls action networking -eg 3.1 oral rehydration

  • ***50 million graduate Apps: 5.4 purpose of first 100 new unis of sdg generation
1billiongirls.com - over the last half century the greatest human development miracle (extra ref schumacher 1 million bilages) has been networked by 1 billion poorest asian village women -here we invite you to help map the 30 collaborations they linkedin - their chief guide 2019-1970 the former oil company executive fazle abed- In spite of being pivotal to how one quarter of all human beings progressed (and by far the deepest co-creators of Sustainability goal solutions- nobody ever printed any paper money for them - its only since innovating the world's largest cashless banking 1.5 systems that many westerners even began to study 21st C happiest possibilities with them.
Out of Bangladesh, village mothers hired 100000 village coaches - webbed 30 collaborations - giant leaps for womankind & youth as first sustainability generation
Intergenerational collaboration entrepreneur platforms 5.1  metavillage sustainable community building - women empowered:15000 families at a time;5.2   billion asian women,5.3  brac net; 5.4   asian universities share sdg graduates 5.5  climate smart village exchanges,5.6 meta and zoom-me up scotty
BANK FOR ALL 1.1  1.2  1.3   1.4   1.5   1.6 celebrate 30 most human collaborations from developing world of last half-century - inspiring  anyone valuing UN and youth as first sustainability generation
EDUCATION  adult village entrepreneurs 4.1; primary 4.2  ; teen 4.3; university4.4 ; pre-school4.5;tech multidisciplinary luminaries 4.6 
HEALTH oral rehydration 3.1 ;para health "doordash" basic meds 3,2; scale vaccination3.3 ;tuberculosis & 3.4  Frugal processes eg wash sanitation, maternity3.5  ; James Grant School of public health 3.6
FOOD/land security 2.1  rice; 2.2 veggie  2.3    cash crops & village fair; 2.4  poultry;2.5  dairy, 2,6  14 nation leading supply chains financial opportunities to end poverty ;

UN says: Today's Education Systems No Longer Fit for PurposeAt Economistdiary.com we search out collaboration events- most exciting in 2022 - UN total transformation of education -september NY; Neumann's families collaboration search AI Hall of Fame; fen ale owners of transmedia race to humanise the metaverse...
abedMOOC.com started from a brainstorming dinner convened by Japan Ambassador to Dhaka who noticed my father's surveys of Asia Rising begun with Japan 1962 (endorsed by JF Kennedy) had not completely detailed Bangladesh Rural Advancement's  contributions to sustaining humanity and celebrating nation building through women empowerment . Dad's last public birthday party had celebrated launch of Muhammad Yunus Global Social Business Book February 2008 with 40 guests at Royal Automobile Club, St James, London. Father had also paid for sampling 2000 of Yunus books, 10000 dvds (youtube style interviews with all grameen directors during summer 2008 when the Nobel judges opened Yunus Museum in Mirpur, as well as part of launch of 2 Journals by Adam Smith Scholars in Glasgow that had emerged from Yunus making the 250th keynote speech on Adam Smith Moral Sentiments Dec 2008. But Fazle Abed whom my father never got the chance to meet had started 11 years before Yunus Grameen Bank 1983 Ordinance , built health and agricultural foundations, and then schooling -altogether a 5 dimensions approach that was not possible to appreciate from onee dimensional microcreditsummit yunus the clintons, queen Sofia staged annually from 1997. Abed said we could do a Mooc if it was laid out round C for collaborations. He was keen to map how 6  Collabs per the 5 primary sdgs had been integrated through 2 quarters of a century 1972-1995 when rural meant no electricity grids or phones; 1995 when partnering platforms afforded extraordinary leapfrog models that could be designed with mobile networks and solar. It took 16 trips while Abed was alive (and the curiosity og many graduate journalists _ to get this mooc started, and we still try to update it even as Abed left the world in Dec 2019. We welcome corrections and omissions. We have attempted here to map the deepest economic miracle

Monday, September 20, 2021

1.3 ultra

https://bracupgi.org/news-updates/social-innovation/brac-50-anniversary-extreme-poverty/

50 Years of Combating Extreme Poverty, From Bangladesh to the World

 March 17, 2022 • 8 minute read

By Isabel Whisson | Senior Manager, Strategy and Max Gollin | Deputy Manager of Communications, BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative

This year, BRAC celebrates its 50th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of its flagship Graduation approach. In 1972, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed KCMG (affectionately known at BRAC as ‘Abed bhai’) started BRAC as a small relief program, in the aftermath of the devastating Bhola cyclone and Bangladesh’s hard-won war for independence. 30 years later, BRAC pioneered the first Graduation program. Fast forward to 2022 and BRAC has directly empowered more than 2.1 million households to escape extreme poverty in Bangladesh alone via the Graduation approach and directly implemented or advised on Graduation programs in 15 additional countries. Nearly 92 million people across 75 countries have been reached by 219 economic inclusion programs which share elements of BRAC’s Graduation approach.

Reflecting on this history, our approach to extreme poverty eradication has been guided by four critical principles which underpin BRAC’s past success and future ambitions.

Put the furthest behind first

From the first village Abed bhai and his passionate team of volunteers began working with in 1972, BRAC worked from a philosophy of harnessing the innate power, agency and dignity of people, in spite of the vulnerability of their situation. He quickly realized he had to start with the most deprived areas and reach the people in the deepest forms of poverty first. This was more than a duty to serve the most vulnerable. It was the understanding that people living in extreme poverty were being overlooked in spite of their potential to lift themselves from their circumstances if only given the tools and self-belief that others had, to realize their potential.

According to Abed bhai, BRAC sought to embody Paulo Freire’s philosophy that people should be the subject, not the object of development programs. This principle lives on in BRAC’s work with governments today whereby we are demonstrating the power and potential of populations in extreme poverty that have been left behind by traditional economic development policies and practices. People living in extreme poverty must not be considered passive recipients of aid but powerful potential agents of change and progress. This principle continues to drive BRAC’s direct implementation, technical assistance, and advocacy around the Graduation approach.

Extreme poverty is multidimensional and requires a multidimensional approach

BRAC recognized that enabling people to escape extreme poverty would require a holistic approach that includes both social and economic empowerment. In 2006, reflecting on BRAC’s Graduation program in Bangladesh, Abed bhai wrote that, ‘the constraints [people] face in escaping extreme poverty are interlocked in ways that are different from those who are moderately poor. This challenges us to rethink our existing development strategies and interventions for the extreme poor, and come up with better ones that work for them.’ This was the challenge that drove BRAC to initiate what was an experimental programme in 2002, with the idea being ‘to address the constraints that the extreme poor face in asset building, in improving their health, in educating their children, in getting their voices heard, in a comprehensive manner so that they too can aspire, plan, and inch their way out of poverty.’

Evaluate and re-evaluate methods and assumptions

To ensure its programs had lasting impact, BRAC committed itself to a culture of critical self-evaluation, built on humility, curiosity, and rigor. These values led to the uncomfortable realization in the late 1990s that our programs were failing to adequately reach and generate long-term impacts for a subset of households living in the most extreme states of poverty and marginalization, which BRAC dubbed ‘ultra-poverty’. Graduation emerged from BRAC’s findings that its Income Generation for Vulnerable Group Development (IGVGD) program with UN World Food Program (WFP) and the Government of Bangladesh was having positive impacts, but women in ultra-poverty were still unable to access loans by the end of the program and needed more intensive support.

BRAC developed the Graduation approach in response to this need, constantly asking how it could improve the program, and if the assumptions it operated under remained valid. This constant, careful fine-tuning of the program led to significant and sustained impacts captured in randomized controlled trials, and sparking a tide of Graduation adaptations around the world. Even so, sensing that the program was no longer sufficiently suited to the evolving poverty context of Bangladesh in 2016, the Ultra-Poor Graduation (UPG) program probed nearly every aspect of Graduation in a major redesign. For instance, upon realizing its asset transfers were no longer large or diverse enough in the current market, the UPG program doubled their value and expanded the livelihood options available to participants.

Such reevaluations of Graduation have ensured its continued relevance and impact. They would not have been possible without BRAC’s commitment to rigor and connection to the communities we serve. BRAC takes firsthand insights from the field staff and listens to local communities, combining this lived experience with rigorous research through internal evaluations, working with the BRAC Institute of Governance & Development (BIGD), and external research partnerships to ensure program quality.

sir fazle hasan abed brac 50th anniversary
Abed bhai visits participants in a BRAC Microfinance Village Organization (VO) group in a village in Savar Thana, Bangladesh (2009).

Scale is paramount

The qualities listed above would have been sufficient to empower many people to improve their lives through Graduation. But Abed bhai’s vision, and the vision of his successors has always pushed BRAC to think of impact and scale as inseparable. As he often said, “Small is beautiful, but scale is necessary.” Impact at scale is an operating principle for BRAC.

A program is not sufficiently impactful because it can be effective for any one household, but because it has the potential to reach millions of households. This is what BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative now aims to do as part of BRAC International’s efforts to bring an approach born in Bangladesh to the world for extreme poverty eradication. Programs we directly implement like UPG are BRAC’s soul and strength, where our experience, skills, and learnings come from, but we know BRAC – nor any other NGO – cannot achieve our vision for the world alone. Scale is only possible through ambition and collaboration.

By 2026, we aim to reach 4.6 million more households with the Graduation approach by scaling through government uptake with multisectoral partners. Sir Abed’s vision was for BRAC to reach a point where it was no longer needed. At the community level, this meant empowering people to continuously develop and improve their lives long after participating in a BRAC program. At a global scale, this means taking 20 years of experience with Graduation and passing that knowledge to governments, researchers, multilateral institutions, media, and civil society to continue expanding the approach.

With nearly 700 million people still living in extreme poverty globally, we face what may seem an insurmountable challenge. But by committing to the same values which have defined BRAC’s approach to extreme poverty reduction, the international community has the chance to deliver real, meaningful progress toward a world where the deepest forms of poverty are extinct.

“Poverty eradication may be a few years away, but it is possible,” said Shameran Abed, Executive Director of BRAC International, who oversees BRAC’s Graduation programs. “We should be the last generation on earth that sees extreme poverty. The resources are there. The research exists. It’s going to take some convincing of governments. It’s going to take some political will, which requires effective advocacy and technical assistance at the local level, but it can be done.”

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