by lwang | Dec 1, 2014 | BRAC USA, Entrepreneurship, Escuela Nueva, FAWE, Helen Keller International, INJAZ Al-Arab, Kravis Prize, Right 2 Play, Soraya Salti
What are you doing next summer? Since 2006, the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership has been building a special community among its recipients, whose premier organizations are dedicated to improving the lives of millions of people around the globe. That community also extends to Claremont McKenna College’s students, who will have a chance to learn about working with past Prize recipients in the summer of 2015 during the Kravis Prize Internship Fair, which will be held this Thursday afternoon, December 4, 3 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., in the Freeberg Lounge. Find out about Kravis Prize internships offered both domestically by BRAC USA and Helen Keller International (both in New York City) and internationally by Right To Play, Escuela Nueva, FAWE, Pratham, and INJAZ Al-Arab (Canada, Colombia, Tanzania, India, and Jordan, respectively). The internship program, which is the result of a partnership between the Kravis Prize and the Kravis Leadership Institute at CMC, has enabled CMCers like Carolyn Islam ’16 (pictured above during her internship last summer with BRAC in Dhaka) to receive firsthand experience in problem-solving and applied entrepreneurship as it’s practiced by leaders in the non-profit sector. Students attending Thursday’s internship fair will receive additional internship details, information about the application process, and also have a chance to listen to the stories of classmates who have already participated in this singular internship program. What does Pratham do? What is the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) all about? What organization interests you? Learn more about these past recipients and others by visiting the home page of the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership at Claremont McKenna College. Are you...
by nowchar | Oct 22, 2014 | BRAC, BRAC UK, BRAC USA, Fazle Abed, Kravis Prize
Once a program has been successfully implemented, the work isn’t over: It’s only just begun. That was the message brought this fall by Sir Fazle Abed to New Haven, Connecticut, where he addressed a group of students in the Yale School of Management. One of the more crucial aspects of any NGO project is its sustainability factor, said Abed, who became the second recipient of the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Nonprofit Leadership in 2007 (the first was Landesa’s Roy Prosterman in 2006). If sustainability isn’t tested and confirmed, longterm success on a much larger scale will be harder to achieve. “We make the programs effective first, then we want to make them efficient by routinizing tasks that are essential and discarding those which are not essential,” he told students during a lecture as part of Yale School of Management’s Leaders Forum Series. “Then, we can scale up.” Abed founded the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee in 1972 to address poverty in remote parts of Bangladesh. That mission has grown to touch lives in so many other areas as well — Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Uganda, Tanzania, Southern Sudan — largely because BRAC has been careful to do exactly what Abed described for his Yale audience. Thanks to a research division, BRAC has been able to test and assess every micro-finance, educational reform, and women’s empowerment program for strengths and weaknesses before scaling up these efforts. Such testing can be costly, however, which is why BRAC has also developed social enterprises (micro lending, printing presses, craft shops, schools) to generate funding that enables BRAC to support new projects. In fact, charitable...
by lwang | Apr 23, 2014 | BRAC, BRAC UK, BRAC USA, Civil Society, Fazle Abed, Kravis Prize
Who are the world’s 50 greatest leaders, according to Fortune Magazine? Along with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and actress-activist Angelina Jolie, Fazle Abed has been honored as one of the world’s “50 greatest leaders” by the magazine for turning the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) into a major force for social change in the non-profit, social sector. Abed was awarded the second annual Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership in 2007 for his visionary work with BRAC and its expansion from serving the poor in northeastern Bangladesh to helping more than 130 million around the world. Fortune Magazine identified the 77-year-old Abed, who was knighted in 2010, as an inspiring figure who is “making the world better.” “After Bangladesh fought a war to become independent,” Fortune magazine announces, “Abed, 77, established the Brac to aid the rural poor, including 10 million returning refugees.” Abed (pictured above), according to the magazine report, is the lone Bangladeshi to make the top 50 list. Abed ranks at #32 on the Fortune list. Other figures included in the top 50 list are Pope Francis, investor Warren Buffett, and former U.S. president Bill Clinton. RELATED: BBVA Award goes to Pratham Nonprofit management: Focus on “funamentals, not fads”: Kravis Prize-related article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review...
by lwang | Jul 18, 2013 | BRAC, BRAC UK, BRAC USA, Civil Society, Fazle Abed, Kravis Prize
Central European University has awarded the 18th Open Society Prize to Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, founder and chairperson of BRAC, recipient of the Kravis Prize in 2007, and the affiliated BRAC University, at its commencement ceremony in June. The Open Society Prize, which is given “to an outstanding individual whose achievements have contributed substantially to the creation of an open society,” has been awarded at past ceremonies to a multitude of prominent world figures, including: Sir Karl Popper, author of The Open Society and its Enemies; Vaclav Havel, playwright and former president of the Czech Republic; Richard Holbrooke, the late senior U.S. diplomat; and Kofi Annan, former secretary-general of the United Nations. During his acceptance speech, Abed described his early experiences with BRAC and reflected on the lessons that he has learned along the way with the organization: “After my country’s independence, I began working to try to help the poor of Bangladesh. My early colleagues and I initially thought that BRAC would be a short-term relief effort. But the realities of entrenched poverty soon changed our minds. I have learned much along the way. Perhaps the most important thing I learned was that when you create the right conditions, poor people will do the hard work of defeating poverty themselves.” RELATED: Landesa offers perspectives on China’s changing...
by lwang | Dec 22, 2011 | BRAC, BRAC USA
It’s evident in their work that Kravis Prize winners are making great strides towards achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. One example is BRAC, which offers programs around the world that span topics from microfinance to girls’ education and health care. BRAC-USA CEO Susan Davis recently was featured on ABC News and discussed BRAC’s involvement in the Million Moms Challenge, which aims to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health: “Things have really improved. Just look at the number of deaths that have happened from women dying from childbirth. We’ve been able to almost halve it to 12,000 a year to 7,300. … So in terms of setting a goal for the year 2015 that the whole world is striving to achieve, we’ve gotten there, at least in these few areas. And I think for Bangladesh, we’re on track to get there and that is dramatic.” She also discussed BRAC’s strategy to implement change: “BRAC has figured out a way to prevent the leading causes of death during childbirth. The solutions aren’t particularly high-tech or don’t often require advanced medical degrees. They only require that we work directly with the poor, within their communities, and trust them to do the things that are needed, with a small amount of proper training, to take care of their neighbors.” To read more of what Davis has to say, click here for her op-ed and a brief video. To find out more about 2007 Kravis Prize winner and BRAC Founder Sir Fazle Abed, go to our...
by lwang | Jun 27, 2011 | BRAC, BRAC UK, BRAC USA, Escuela Nueva, Fazle Abed, Kravis Prize, Vicky Colbert
Congratulations to Vicky Colbert from Escuela Nueva Foundation! We are so happy that Vicky is being honored with this tremendous award. It is a well-deserved and hard-earned recognition. This year’s award announcement brought back memories of my own experience in 2007. When I was awarded the second annual Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership, the news brought a whirlwind of excitement, gratitude, inspiration and exhilaration for all of us at the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). The Prize’s financial award had an immediate impact as it helped BRAC establish offices in the United States and United Kingdom. These offices have helped to support and grow BRAC’s programs beyond Bangladesh. Since 2002, BRAC has expanded to nine other countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Southern Sudan, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Uganda and recently Haiti. The Prize helped not only to begin our work in the U.S. through BRAC USA, but also to give our new institution credibility in the U.S. Though BRAC began in 1972 and is today one of the biggest development organizations in the world, not many people living in the U.S. had ever heard of it and even fewer were aware of its remarkable history and successful track record. The recognition we received from the Kravis Prize allowed us to establish BRAC USA and begin telling our story to a new audience in America and the U.K. Throughout 2010, BRAC USA has been working to tell the story of our organization’s successful approach to development. Members of the BRAC USA team have attended and participated in several conferences and panels in the last year. We also have...
