Microfinance luminary Fazle Hasan Abed receives “Entrepreneur for the World” award

CPN Entrepreneur of the World award, Mr. Hasan in the middle , source: BRAC

Microfinance Focus , Dec. 03, 2009 : Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder and Chairperson of BRAC, the pioneering microfinance institution in Bangladesh, has been the awarded the inaugural “Entrepreneur for the World” Award in the Social Entrepreneur category at the World Entrepreneurship Forum held recently in Lyon, France.

The World Entrepreneurship Forum was established by EMLYON Business School and KPMG. The World Entrepreneurship Forum awards started in 2008 to acknowledge the contribution of entrepreneurs to wealth-creation and social justice this is the first year that the Social Entrepreneur category was included in the awards category.

Patrick Molle, president of EMLYON Business School, and Jean-Luc Decornoy, chairman of KPMG SA, presented Abed with the award “to highlight his more than 30 years at the head of one of the largest non-government development organisations in the world. This award is granted to a personality who has greatly improved the life of the community. Fazle Hasan Abed is a social worker and visionary.”

Fazle Hasan Abed has been honoured with numerous international awards for his achievements within BRAC, among which: the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership (1980); Unicef’s Maurice Pate Award (1992); Olof Palme Award (2001); Gates Award for Global Health (2004); Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership (2007). Clinton Global Citizenship Award (2007) as well as several honourary degrees from renowned universities including Columbia, Yale and Oxford.

The organization was founded in 1972 as the Bangladesh Relief Assistance Committee in response to the humanitarian needs of thousands of refugees returning to their homes after Bangladesh’s War of Independence. After initially establishing activities in relief and rehabilitation operations, BRAC shifted its focus in 1973 from relief to long-term community development, and was renamed the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, or BRAC, as it is now known today.BRAC is now operational across Asia, Latin America and Africa.

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