“for their efforts to create economic and social development from below”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has Announced the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006, divided into two equal parts, to Dr. Muhammad Yunus & Grameen Bank

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006, divided into two equal parts, to Muhammad Yunus and 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. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights.

Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries. Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea. From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty. Grameen Bank has been a source of ideas and models for the many institutions in the field of micro-credit that have sprung up around the world.

Every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life. Across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development.

Micro-credit has proved to be an important liberating force in societies where women in particular have to struggle against repressive social and economic conditions. Economic growth and political democracy can not achieve their full potential unless the female half of humanity participates on an equal footing with the male.

Yunus’s long-term vision is to eliminate poverty in the world. That vision can not be realised by means of micro-credit alone. But Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that, in the continuing efforts to achieve it, micro-credit must play a major part.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus leaves Dhaka tomorrow for Oslo to receive his prize at the official award-giving ceremony on December 10.

Dr. Yunus will also travel to Sweden and Denmark. In Addition he will visit England and France to attend a number of receptions in his honour including by Prince Charles on December 14 and French President Jacques Chirac on December 16.

Bangladesh Television (BTV) and Channel i will telecast the official Nobel prize-giving ceremony live on December 10 between 6:00 pm and 7:25 pm Bangladesh time. The ceremony will also be webcast live on the Nobel Institute website : www.nobelprize.org.

Grameen Bank board member and borrower, Taslima Begum, representing Grameen Bank, will jointly receive the prize with Dr. Yunus at the ceremony, said a Grameen Bank press release.

Dr. Yunus will also deliver the ‘Nobel Lecture’ at the ceremony to be attended by current and former heads of state and global political leaders, who will later attend the Nobel Peace Prize banquet in the evening.

The King and the Queen of Norway will attend the banquet for the first time in its history.

Prof. Yunus will also attend the Nobel peace prize concert to be hosted by Hollywood Star Sharon Stone, Angelica Houston. Yusuf Islam (Former Ly Cat Stevens), Lionel Ritchie, Simply Red Monica Yunus and Nrityanchal will perform at this concert.

Bangladeshi expatriates in Norway will also organise a programme in Oslo, where the prize giving ceremony will be telecast live for the audience who cannot attend the ceremony.

On December 12, Prof. Yunus will leave for Sweden where he will attend a banquet with the other Nobel prize winners at the Nobel Museum. He will also take part in the historic signing ceremony there.

On December 13, he will meet with the Swedish King and political leaders, attend a lunch and press conference with the Swedish International Development minister. Besides, he will attend a reception organised by the Bangladeshi community in Sweden.

The Nobel laureate professor will travel to Denmark on December 14 to present a speech at the biennial national speech organised by the Danish Council for Development before leaving for England.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his wife Cherie Blair, British Chancellor of the treasury and the Governor of the Bank of England are also scheduled to meet with Prof. Yunus during his stay in London. He will also attend a reception to be hosted by Prince Charles.

British Baroness Paula Uddin has also organised a reception for Dr. Yunus on December 15 at the British Parliament, where the leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, is expected to attend. The Bangladeshi community in London has arranged a reception on December 15.

Professor Yunus will travel to France on December 16, where he will attend a reception given in his and Grameen Bank’s honour by French President Jacques Chirac. Professor Yunus and Chirac will jointly hold a press conference after the reception.

Dr. Yunus is scheduled to give a number of interviews to the global media, including one to the BBC on December 9, besides participating in a live interactive session with the CNN in Oslo on December 10 after the official prize-giving ceremony.

Professor Yunus will appear on Britain’s TV programme “News Night”, and will be interviewed by British newspapers The Sunday Telegraph, The Times, and France’s Le Monde.

Yunus will be accompanied by his family, Grameen Bank board members, officials and borrowers.

He will return to Dhaka on December 19.

Grameen Bank-Village Phone Wins Global Competition for Contribution of Technology to Development

PETERSBERG/Bonn, Germany, June 27, 2004 — Grameen Bank-Village Phone has been chosen from a field of more than 200 nominees for the Development Gateway Foundation’s first-ever Petersberg Prize. The 100,000 euro Prize recognizes Grameen’s outstanding achievement in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve people’s lives.

Grameen Bank, which provides microcredit to poor people, established a program called Village Phone, through which women entrepreneurs can start a business providing wireless payphone service in rural areas of Bangladesh. In doing so, Grameen has created a new class of women entrepreneurs who have raised themselves from poverty. Moreover, it has improved the livelihoods of farmers and others who are provided access to critical market information and lifeline communications previously unattainable in some 28,000 villages of Bangladesh. Continue reading →