Two Steps Backward for Innovation to End Poverty By Sam Daley-Harris

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Two Steps Backward for Innovation to End Poverty
by Sam Daley-Harris

The deed is done. On May 5th the appellate division of the Bangladesh
Supreme Court agreed that the Bangladesh Bank, the nation's central
bank, was justified in firing Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad
Yunus from his post as Managing Director of Grameen Bank, the
institution he founded more than three decades ago. Prof. Yunus' lead
lawyer, Dr. Kamal Hossain, one of Bangladesh's most distinguished
attorneys and a drafter of the nation's constitution, was scarcely
able to hide his disgust at the Appellate Division order, when he
said: "I [apparently] have to take admission to university again to
newly learn the constitutional laws of the 21st century."

The dismissal is not the lone action of one government institution but
is part of a premeditated campaign that starts at the highest level
with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Their reason for sacking Prof.
Yunus? He's "too old." Never mind that the 70-year-old Yunus
maintains a rigorous schedule or that the Finance Minister, another
key player in the sacking, at 77 is somehow not "too old" for that
post. Their excuse would be laughable if it were not for the
calamitous impact it portends. What makes the decision to remove
Prof. Yunus so disgraceful is not that he would be out of a job - any
university in the world would welcome him with open arms as a visiting
professor. No, the atrocity here is the fact that the independence
and integrity of one of the world's premier poverty fighting
institutions is now at grave risk. Grameen Bank, an extraordinary
institution with more than 8 million microcredit borrowers that took
35 years to build, could be destroyed in a matter of months by
incompetent government action.

The government's action cannot honestly be in response to accusations
by a Danish documentary maker about an improper transfer of Norwegian
aid funds more than a dozen years ago, because both the Norwegian
government and Bangladesh's own review committee have found that
Grameen did nothing wrong. It cannot be due to the documentary
maker's charge of excessive interest rates, because Microfinance
Transparency and the government's own review committee found Grameen
has the lowest interest rates in the country. Instead, most observers
see this as an inexcusable political vendetta by the Prime Minister
against Prof. Yunus, stemming from his short-lived attempt to start a
political party in 2007.

Consider these groundbreaking innovations that Prof. Yunus' poverty-
fighting laboratory has brought to the world and what could be lost in
the future from his unwarranted ouster:

• In 1976 he made loans of less than US$1 each to 42 desperately poor
Bangladeshis to start or build tiny businesses - and the microcredit
revolution was born. It has made its way all around the world. While
others have seen microfinance as a way to make big money for
investors, Prof. Yunus has never once diverted from his original
intent to empower the poor.

• In 1997 Grameen Phone Ladies started bringing cell phone technology
to remote villagers throughout Bangladesh-providing the dual benefit
of creating jobs and increasing communications, which enhanced others'
work.
• Grameen Shakti, an energy firm, has installed more than a half-
million solar home systems and sold more than a quarter-million
improved cooking stoves.

• In a joint venture with Danone, the yogurt maker headquartered in
France, Grameen Danone is bringing low-cost fortified yogurt to
malnourished children throughout the country - and creating a business
opportunity for the poor women who sell it.

• College scholarships and loans have gone to 180,000 students. Most
remarkably, in almost all of the cases, these are the children of
illiterate parents who have had the help of Grameen Bank in breaking
the bonds of intergenerational illiteracy.

A government that so rashly and ruthlessly ousts this innovative and
transformational leader cannot likely be trusted to continue his
revolutionary work.

But the deed is done. Here is a sample of the visionary voice that
Bangladesh has likely lost in this despicable government act.
Reflecting on the 1997 Microcredit Summit Prof. Yunus wrote: "In
teaching economics I learned about money, and now as head of a bank I
lend money. The success of our venture lies in how many crumpled bank
bills our once starving members now have in their hands. But the
microcredit movement, which is built around, and for, and with money,
ironically, is at its heart, at its deepest root not about money at
all. It is about helping each person to achieve his or her fullest
potential. It is not about cash capital, it is about human capital.
Money is merely a tool that unlocks human dreams and helps even the
poorest and most unfortunate people on this planet achieve dignity,
respect, and meaning in their lives."
Sam Daley-Harris is Founder of the Microcredit Summit Campaign which
seeks to reach 175 million poorest families with microloans
www.microcreditsummit.org and of RESULTS which seeks to create the
political will to end poverty www.results.org.

Sam Daley-Harris, Founder
RESULTS and Microcredit Summit Campaign
750 First Street, NW, Suite 1040
Washington, DC 20002
C 202-390-0012
H 609-924-2414
samdh...@microcreditsummit.org
www.microcreditsummit.org
www.results.org