Creating A World Without Poverty
Social Business and the Future of Capitalism
Dr. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, visited the University of British Columbia to speak about his dream of eradicating poverty one loan at a time.
Dr. Mumammad Yunus visited the University of British Columbia on March 15th 2008 to receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in acknowledgement of "his tirelss efforts to improve the lives of the poor in his native Bangladesh and around the world."
Nobel Laureates Talking About Thier Life Experiences
While visiting UBC, Professor Yunus was the inaugural speaker in the prestigious Michael Smith Memorial Lecture Series. The intention of this lecture series is to allow Nobel Laureates the opportunity to speak about their experiences, both inside and beyond their focus of study. Dr. Yunus spoke at the Chan Center to a full house and a afterwards took part in a book signing for his second book, Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism.
The Grameen Bank Project
Dr. Yunus, a renowned economist, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 in recognition of his efforts to eradicate world poverty by providing small business loans to poor people, in particular women and children, in the world's poorest counties. Thirty years after he envisioned Micro-lending as a means to eradicate poverty, over a hundred million families are now able to feed, cloth and educate themselves.
Social Business
Like all visionaries, Dr. Yunus has the ability to see opportunity where others see none. Like all visionaries, he has the courage to follow his heart. When speaking of his younger years as a university professor in Bangladesh, when the Grameen Bank Project first came to mind, he says, "I was losing faith in what I was taught and what I was teaching, so I reverted back to myself as a human and made a new start."
Now he dreams of world where a more humane form of capitalism, called Social Businesses will bring an end to poverty, lack of education, pollution, and disease. In Creating A World Without Poverty, Dr. Yunus offers examples of how capitalism can create a world of plenty instead of a world of haves and have-nots.
Danone, Micro-Credit and Social Business
During his lecture, Dr. Yunus spoke with pride about the success already being realized when large corporations adopt the concept of becoming a social business. He spoke of the world's first social business -- a partnership bewtween the Grameen Bank and France's Danone to produce vitamin and mineral enriched yogurt for the children of Bangledesh. He encouraged other socially-responsible companies to consider his ideas, to open their minds and their hearts.
Social Business and the Future of Capitalism and Dr. Yunus first book, Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty are recommended reading for anybody who is interested in world economics, including business leaders, high-school economics teachers, investors and socially conscious people everywhere.
Creating A World Without Poverty
ISBN: 978-1-58648-493
Publisher: Perseus Book Group
Publication Date: 2007
