2 FROM WORLD FOOD PRIZE SUMMARY OF FAZLE ABED 2015

 extract PDF testimony: In times of uncertain food security as the world’s population is projected to burgeon to more than 9 billion people by 2050, BRAC’s triumphal programs are scalable and sustainable, many of them in the form of enterprises that deliver a “dual bottom line” of a financial profit and a social good. Through BRAC, Sir Fazle has been a leader in empowering women and girls through microfinance, education, healthcare, and encouraging their active participation in directing village life and community cohesion. “We have always used an approach to development that puts power in the hands of the poor themselves, especially women and girls,” he said. “Educated girls turn into empowered women, and as we have seen in my native Bangladesh and elsewhere, the empowerment of women leads to massive improvements in quality of life for everyone, especially the poor.” BRAC has recently increased its commitment to girls’ education in low-income countries with a five-year pledge to reach 2.7 million additional girls through primary and pre-primary schools, teacher training, adolescent empowerment programs, scholarships and other programs. The Chairman of the World Food Prize Selection Committee and the first World Food Prize Laureate in 1987, Dr, M.S. Swaminathan, has praised Sir Fazle Hasan Abed as a “strategic thinker, and a man with a future vision.” Dr. Swaminathan lauded BRAC and its founder, writing that: “While it was set up in the context of the post-war reconstruction in Bangladesh, and its initial focus was on basic needs and strengthening livelihoods, Abed soon realized that the better strategy would be to complement state efforts rather than repeating them. BRAC is constantly innovating. While funding was important, Abed realized that the organization needed some internal financial resources in order to steer its course, rather than become diverted by donor agendas. He therefore set up a considerable number of commercial enterprises as part of the BRAC ‘brand.’ These include printing presses, manufacturing industries, a hotel, conference facilities, retail outlets and the private BRAC University, among others. Surpluses from these enterprises go into supporting BRAC’s development programs.” And finally, Dr. Paul Collier, professor of Economics at Oxford University and author of The Bottom Billion, summed it up when he called BRAC “the most astounding social enterprise in the world.”

E:food 2021 december discussion - will food be the first urgent challenge after covid? - we correctly debate eg ecop26.com non-sustainability of energy sources for machines but dont forget humans need energy (ie food) and that needs to be mapped as an AI challenge (data from every gps where people food security is life determining) - see also aiforgood- wfp (Un food networks)