Tracing down the roots of the developments by the Father of Microfinance – Muhammad Yunus

In 1983, Professor Muhammad Yunus founded the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh on the foundation that access to credit is an essential human right. His goal was to aid in the emancipation of the impoverished by offering loans to them on terms that were agreeable to them and by teaching them some basic financial principles so they could help themselves.

The Grameen Bank has progressed to the forefront of a rising global movement toward eradicating poverty through microlending from Dr. Yunus’ personal loan of modest sums of money to impoverished basketweavers in Bangladesh in the middle of the 1970s. More than 100 nations around the world currently have replicas of the Grameen Bank concept.

Professor Yunus, who was born in the coastal city of Chittagong in 1940, first attended Dhaka University in Bangladesh before being awarded a Fulbright grant to attend Vanderbilt University to study economics. After earning his Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt, he joined Middle Tennessee State University as an assistant professor the following year. Yunus oversaw the economics division at Chittagong University after moving back to Bangladesh.

Professor Yunus served as a member of the Fourth World Conference on Women’s International Advisory Group from 1993 to 1995. He was selected to this position by the UN secretary general. He has held positions on the UN Expert Group on Women and Finance, the Advisory Council for Sustainable Economic Development, and the Global Commission of Women’s Health.

The Mohamed Shabdeen Award for Science (1993), the Humanitarian Award (1993), CARE (USA), the World Food Prize (1994), the World Food Prize Foundation (USA), the Independence Day Award (1987), Bangladesh’s highest honour, the King Hussein Humanitarian Leadership Award (2000), the King Hussien Foundation (Jordan), the Volvo Environment Prize (2003), the Volvo Environment Prize Foundation, Sweden, and the King Hussein Humanitarian Leadership Award (2000) are just a few of the numerous He is on the United Nations Foundation’s board of directors.