UNB, Dhaka
Micro-finance pioneer Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus told the World Economic Forum in Davos that world’s poor people would be the ones most affected by the ongoing global financial crisis.
A panelist at the Davos Philanthropic Roundtable, Professor Yunus said when the world is busy talking about bailout packages for companies, at the same time it is needed to design similar packages for the poor.
Former US President Bill Clinton, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates Jr and former Prime Minster of Britain Tony Blair, Richard Branson and Global Business Leader were present among others, says a release from Yunus Secretariat.
The theme of the 39th World Economic Forum this year is ‘Shaping the Post Crisis World’.
Prof Yunus, founder and Managing Director of Grameen Bank, underlined that the crisis increased the need for special attention to the poor and that the rich still had plenty of money.
“Those who had billions and have lost half of it still have the other half of it left. Their lifestyles will not change. But the real impact will be on the people at the bottom,” said Yunus, who was given the Peace Prize in 2006 for his efforts to lift people out of extreme poverty.
His words were echoed during the roundtable by Bill Clinton who said that the economic stimulus packages should be aimed at the poorest in society.
He urged the world’s rich to spend more on supporting projects in the developing world even though their own wealth has been hit.
In addition to the Philanthropic Roundtable, Professor Yunus was a lead speaker at an especially organized panel entitled “Restoring Growth through Social Business”.
During this session, moderated by Kishore Mahbubani of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Singapore, panelists discussed the great prospect of social business, non-loss, non-dividend companies, to address social goals ranging from improved nutrition, provision of safe drinking water, information technology for the poor and others.
They discussed the on-the-ground experience of social businesses already being operated in Bangladesh by Grameen.
Panelist Franck Riboud, Chairman and CEO of French dairy giant Danone, which has partnered with Grameen in a social business, said that all CEOs would now have to reinvent what business means in light of what is happening, and that social business is a way forward for this.
In Davos from January 29 to February 1, Professor Yunus held discussions with business leaders, philanthropists, including Bill and Melinda Gates, heads of UN agencies on joint-venture collaborations in social business to address some of the world’s most pressing problems, particularly healthcare for the poor.
He finalized the Joint-Venture Agreement to set up production plant in Bangladesh to produce Nutrition Supplement and Treated Mosquito Nets, with Dr. Humbrecht, CEO of BASF, a giant German company.
Courtesy: nation.ittefaq.com
