Nobel Peace Prize: Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank

Posted by Joerg W in International Economics, Fulbright on Friday, October 13. 2006

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 to Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank for "their efforts to create economic and social development from below. Lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Micro-credit is one such means."

Muhammad Yunus was born in 1940 in Chittagong, the business centre of what was then Eastern Bengal and is now Bangladesh. He was the third of 14 children of whom five died in infancy. Educated in Chittagong, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and received his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. In 1972 he became head of the Economics Department at Chittagong University. He is the founder and managing director of the Grameen Bank. Prof. Yunus wrote the memoir Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty (Amazon.com, Amazon.de).
According to the BBC, "Hillary Clinton, wife of former US President Bill Clinton, said in 2000 that Mr Yunus had helped the Clintons introduce micro-credit schemes to some of the poorest communities in Arkansas." Since Senator Fulbright was from Arkansas, one could conclude that the Fulbright program has made a full circle (in a positive sense) and America has benefited from awarding a Fulbright grant to Muhammad Yunus.

The CEO of Grameen Foundation USA is Alex Counts, who is also a Fulbright Alumnus. He will present the plenary luncheon address on Sunday, November 5, during the Fulbright Association's 29th Annual Conference "Fulbright Alumni: Expressions in Civil Society."
The Fulbright Academy lists in the right column here some Nobel Laureates, who are also Fulbright Scholars.