14:37
it used to be 527 deaths per hundred
14:43
thousand births in 9th 2001 in 2007 it
14:49
came
down to 327 in 2010 it came down to
14:55
199 and in brakes project areas
it is
15:00
now 124 so so what am I wrong wait what
15:05
are we doing in Black's project area let
15:07
me
tell you that we have very famous
15:10
very simple solution to the problem
we
15:13
want women to give birth to our birthing
15:16
huts
15:17
we don't wanted them to go to hospital
15:19
but most women prefer to give birth in
15:22
their own households so but we are
15:24
trying to
get them into a more sterile
15:26
kind of environment where a plastic
15:30
sheet which is sterile
15:31
we
also have a birthing kit with sterile
15:36
gauze and sterile thread to
cocci the
15:39
umbilical cord and it raised raised
15:42
sterile plate and so on so it's a very
15:46
simple
what we called birthing kit which
15:49
black produces in in thousands
and
15:52
distributes it throughout the country so
15:54
even if you are having him child in the
15:56
home
you can still be safe but so it's a
16:01
simple solution but you are
and more
16:06
expensive solution will not not
16:08
necessarily be more effective in the
16:10
sense
that if you say that take them to
16:12
the hospital they won't go so
so we have
16:16
to find simple innovative solutions to
16:21
this problem so we are real we are on
16:24
the way
to reducing mortality of mothers
16:27
but then just talking this morning
that
16:30
maternal mortality in Norway is 3 per
16:36
hundred thousand
16:37
so whatever so even hundreds
and
16:40
hundreds and 40s to many so what are we
16:43
building now so for the future we are
16:47
building
metal a school for training
16:53
midwives because ultimately it's a
16:57
long-term sustainability of this program
17:00
will depend on whether we have enough
17:02
midwives
obstetricians we have but
17:05
they're in hospitals and but they won't
17:07
act without you know this status to
17:09
gather so in mothers having obstructive
17:13
delivery
just won't have this kind of
17:15
service that we need so we need good
17:18
quality Midwife so we are trying to
17:20
produce that now in Iraq but right now
17:23
what
we are trying to do not training
17:25
advice but training faculty for
midwives
17:28
so we need to set up a number of
17:31
midwifery colleges where we need faculty
17:34
so
we are we are starting with MSC in
17:38
midwifery so so that's that's
starting
17:41
next week in brac University so that's
17:46
what we are trying to do in health in
17:48
education
we had only 25 percent of our
17:51
population
17:52
illiterate 32 percent was made in
17:57
eighteen
percent female literacy in
18:00
Bangladesh when we when we inherited
18:02
Bangladesh so there there was a big
18:05
struggle to get her as many people as
18:08
possible
into primary school and what
18:11
did Bragg do we had we set up instead
of
18:15
building five room primary schools so
18:20
building cost time training teachers for
18:24
one
year or two years I thought we all
18:27
know we can't afford that so
we we
18:30
decided on a very simple solution to
18:32
we'll hire a room which is approximately
18:37
300
square feet 240 years to 50 years
18:41
square feet where we will have
35
18:44
children in one teacher
18:46
and the teacher will be a personality
18:49
from
the village with 12 years 10 to 12
18:51
years of education which should
be a
18:53
housewife if possible a married person
18:55
so that she doesn't marry often go
18:57
somewhere
else so we we we trained her
19:02
for two weeks and then supervise her
19:06
every week twice and then once a month a
19:11
refresher course today so that was the
19:15
the
black model and it worked
19:17
exceedingly well I remember reading it
19:20
in a newspaper article in ordinary nice
19:23
way a journal article about the ten best
19:27
schools
in the world where do they give
19:30
the best education the Netherlands
was
19:33
providing the best education in maths
19:36
and languages foreign language of course
19:40
any
that child can speak two languages
19:42
other than his own you find the
best
19:47
educational administration was in was in
19:50
Germany they used to train their
19:52
teachers well
they had longer hours for
19:54
teaching the course was more cost
19:57
effective less cost but more output
20:03
Sweden was the best for adult education
20:06
so
if you are a graduate in philosophy
20:09
and wants to want at the age
of 55 to
20:12
find out what's going on going on and in
20:15
philosophy
20:16
you could go to university is he
in in
20:18
Sweden and and finders find out what's
20:21
being what's happening Italy of course
20:24
his
best for preschool remember this
20:27
there in the Boundary service system
was
20:29
created by them and then Japan was very
20:34
good for or the best for science
20:36
education
science for their or their
20:38
schools was school science program New
20:42
Zealand was the best for teaching
20:44
mother-tongue if you are speaking
20:46
English that
they teach English better
20:48
to you and then the United States was
20:53
best for this ph.d program so that was
20:56
the 10 best schools in the world so I
20:59
thought
why not get the New Zealand
21:01
teacher to come and teach us how to
21:04
teach Bangla to our Bengali speaking
21:06
children so they must have a methodology
21:09
of
teaching so we got Sousa Hilary
21:12
Sir Edmund Hillary was the the Conqueror
21:17
of Everest
21:18
was
the our New Zealand's ambassador to
21:21
Bangladesh in India and he was
based in
21:24
Delhi so I sent my number to one of my
21:27
assistants to go and see Sir Edmund and
21:30
try
and get a couple of teachers from
21:33
New Zealand to come and teach
us out how
21:36
to teach Bangla so I got two teachers
21:39
from New Zealand and they stayed with us
21:41
for
six months that they worked with us
21:43
and so on and I wanted to get
to get a
21:45
Dutch tea a maths teacher but I couldn't
21:49
find one so I found a an English
21:52
professor
at Leeds University and
21:54
developed the curriculum for Africa
21:56
countries and formats
21:57
he
came on worked with us because maths
22:00
unless you teach them well
children
22:04
don't like it don't are afraid of bats
22:07
but if you can teach them well they love
22:09
it
so so we developed a system of
22:13
teaching which most of the children
just
22:16
love to do maths and they're not afraid
22:18
of it at all so that's what we got out
22:21
of this
seeking help from other
22:24
countries and then black education
22:27
program this one teacher school we we
22:32
had 22 schools first pilot ten of these
22:38
schools
were in our project area where
22:40
we had microfinance and other other
22:41
program and 12 outside the project area
22:44
we didn't have we didn't want to have
22:46
location
have anything to do with the
22:49
quality of education so we had quality
22:51
control we had monitoring system and
22:54
everything was right place so after
22:57
after after
the first cohort of children
23:00
coming out of our 22 schools they were
23:04
far superior to the Nash
23:06
children
from the national system they
23:09
were better at reading but writing
23:11
better in maths so so obviously we found
23:15
it very successful model for replicating
23:18
this
program throughout the nation so
23:21
over there for the next ten years
we had
23:24
32,000 schools so by 22 by 2200 year
23:29
2000 we had 36,000 one teacher school is
23:32
1.2
million children in them and of
23:37
course over the last over these
years we
23:40
have now educated about 6 million
23:42
children we have gone on to high school
23:45
and
universities and some of the world
23:47
studying medicine in China and
all kinds
23:51
of things so that was our effort into
23:56
private getting every the poorest
24:00
children
particularly those who never
24:01
went to school before a girls mostly
we
24:05
wanted to have one 2/3 of the children
24:09
we took in our schools or girls so we
24:12
didn't
want to start his school in a
24:14
village where they couldn't find enough
24:16
girls at least 70% had to be girls in
24:19
our schools so that's how breaks
24:25
education
program expanded throughout
24:27
the country now microfinance we have
24:33
invented bike to finance we expanded
24:36
throughout the country like the finest
24:38
did
quite well but then microfinance
24:41
itself but just financing doesn't
make
24:44
that you are going to make a livelihood
24:46
out of it all the time successfully we
24:49
found
for example that about 300,000
24:52
women who were growing vegetables
they
24:55
were they didn't make much profit
24:56
because that quality seats were not
24:58
available
24:59
we found the women who bought cows with
25:02
their borrowed money from microfinance
25:05
they
couldn't sell their milk in rural
25:10
areas because there was no no
25:12
market for milk in rural Bangladesh so
25:15
we had to break her to go into social
25:17
enterprises
so we set up a milk plant
25:20
which collected milk from all over the
25:22
country from areas where they couldn't
25:25
find a milk market we brought them in to
25:27
duck
and then pasteurized milk and
25:32
distributed yogurt and ice cream and
25:34
milk and everything so so this was the
25:37
business for us we went into seed
25:40
business
so that this is women could
25:44
produce more her productivity to put
25:47
increase so like that we went to
25:50
different kinds of businesses try and
25:52
get poor
people to earn more more from
25:58
what they're trying to do so either
25:59
providing better inputs or marketing
26:03
their products so black as a as a entity
26:07
has
become the largest organization in
26:11
the world in terms of size who
are more
26:14
than hundred thousand people work for us
26:17
in Bangladesh alone and another nine
26:23
thousand
work in other countries and our
26:26
budget is 629 million this year
of which
26:32
70% come from our businesses and 30
26:35
percent comes from donors so businesses
26:39
are
so I we've gone into business like
26:41
banking we are we owned the fifth
26:45
largest bank in Bangladesh because
26:48
microfinance only creates jobs for
26:52
people who
are for themselves
26:56
self-employment it doesn't create jobs
26:59
for others so we wanted to lend money to
27:03
people who will create jobs so small and
27:06
medium
enterprise lending was the main
27:08
focus of a black bank so that's
what
27:11
what we did then there was another group
27:14
of people they were too poor to even
27:16
borrow
money
27:18
we call them ultra poor and we have
27:21
developed a program now over what three
27:23
hundred
three hundred dollars but
27:26
capital investments in a family and
27:29
holding their hands sending their
27:32
children to school providing them an
27:36
asset
which they could could earn
27:38
something from and a monthly stipend
for
27:42
two years we hold their hands and and
27:44
then after that they become microfinance
27:46
clients
and then gradually come out of
27:49
poverty so that program was digging
up a
27:52
couple of months ago in in the economist
27:54
by do Hawaii Esther Duflo on MIT and she
28:00
said
that this transformation of women
28:02
on the poorest women was so great
in the
28:07
sense that the three hundred dollars
28:09
that brakes spent on them he couldn't
28:11
have
done it but what what was the what
28:14
happened the transformation was
for the
28:18
women this hope created a new kind of
28:21
transformation they worked harder they
28:23
fed
their children my son they send
28:25
their Thunder to school so all kinds
of
28:27
things happen because of that now let me
28:33
let me say a few words about the other
28:37
part
of my presentation which was going
28:40
to be lessons for Africa and
countries
28:42
and I shared I talked a little bit about
28:44
agriculture but I think most important
28:49
things
that break is done is innovation
28:52
there are many things
28:53
it's a frugal innovation we call them
28:56
innovation
which doesn't cost much but
28:58
very effective so we have for example
29:02
100,000 women trained in each one in
29:06
each village we call them health
29:09
promoters
so basic health care services
29:12
they provide it doesn't take a lot
of
29:15
training but you have to have to keep
29:17
them bringing them in for retraining
29:20
keep them
you know solidarity among them
29:25
and then you find a
29:28
a huge group of people trying to provide
29:32
services
to their community volunteers
29:36
but but there are also members of
the
29:39
black group and there are also borrowers
29:42
from our microfinance program but they
29:45
also
provide this service to their own
29:46
community so we have that and
that's
29:48
wonderful as a it's a part it's the kind
29:53
of innovation which which helps in
29:57
getting
a pork poor community lifted out
30:00
of poverty so that's one area the
30:04
effectiveness and efficiencies of
30:05
programming and scaling up most programs
30:10
remain
small and beautiful and never
30:12
impactful so one has to be what suppose
30:18
to weary of small programs however
30:20
beautiful they may be when you have
30:23
millions
of people in poverty
30:24
you can't remain small and beautiful so
30:27
you have to be effective and even if
30:30
large means ugly you have to be
30:34
effective and
I don't really think that
30:35
large necessarily means ugly I bought
30:39
for shale oil and I didn't find in a lot
30:42
of ugliness in shale oil at all this lot
30:44
of
efficiency in it so so I would urge
30:48
that programs be scaled up to
cover as
30:52
many people as possible and so scaling
30:55
up is important and to remain learning
30:58
and
learning organization continuously
31:00
learning in your efforts to find
newer
31:04
ways of responding to the needs of the
31:11
people you serve that might these are
31:15
the lessons
that one needs to transmit
31:18
to countries in poverty thank you very
31:20
much thanks very much for your inspiring
31:30
remarks and we have a lot of different
31:32
kinds
of questions I think we'll start
31:34
with one on something that you
haven't
31:37
touched on but I I'm sure you're
31:38
thinking about this and you probably
31:40
have already
gone well beyond anybody's
31:43
imagination so the question is how have
31:45
rats development strategies changed over
31:48
the years especially with the
31:50
proliferation
of mobile technology
31:52
technology yeah so what are we doing
31:54
there
31:55
technology
we are a way yes we are doing
32:00
a number of things one is that in
the
32:03
old days I remember that
32:06
you know oral rehydration therapy we
32:09
wanted
to we wanted to pay our workers
32:11
on the basis of retention of knowledge
32:14
by the mothers that they taught so how
32:18
did we do that we had 10 percent of the
32:20
households
that that they are already
32:22
hydration what was visited our monitors
32:25
would go and check what percentage of
32:27
the message they remembered and whether
32:29
they
could make the oral rehydration
32:30
plate correctly so the monitors
would go
32:34
in so how do I check the monitors or are
32:36
they going to a tea stall and just
32:38
feeling
of the form like that what are
32:41
they going actually going to the
house
32:43
so I didn't know how what to do about
32:44
that so I found it I devised in a system
32:47
the
system was the oral rehydration
32:50
worker visiting a household would
write
32:52
down the name of the youngest member of
32:55
the house so it may be a two-year-old
32:57
Asifa
so she will note that down and
33:01
then when the monitors will go in
she/he
33:03
will not be given or she will not be
33:05
given the name of that Asifa he supposed
33:08
to
ask the same question and write down
33:10
after monitoring the name so
if the name
33:13
didn't match we knew that he didn't go
33:15
to the household so we set a number of a
33:19
number
of monitors because they because
33:22
they were cheating now I don't
have to
33:26
go to this household but the the mobile
33:28
technology now makes it possible for us
33:31
to
find out exactly where he is and
33:34
whether he is talking from the
household
33:36
so we now have all our workers were
33:41
supposed to go and do antenatal care to
33:43
the
women pregnant women
33:44
I want her photograph that that he takes
33:47
that day and it comes with in doors into
33:50
our database so we know that she has
33:52
visited
and she has given the genetic
33:55
game so that's one mobile technology
is
33:57
called so use of mobile tech toys the
34:00
other bone technologies is what Bill and
34:03
Melinda
Gates bill Bill Gates
34:05
particularly was very keen he told me
34:08
about five years ago he said I want poor
34:11
people are you people are giving money
34:12
to the
poor okay fine market
34:15
microfinance is okay but I want them to
34:17
also have ability to save money savings
34:20
and and saving money in a bank for a
34:25
poor person
he can't even enter the bank
34:26
because he's too afraid to go into
a big
34:30
bank so how does the poor person save
34:33
money so he said so I said with that we
34:38
collect
money from our microfinance
34:39
clients he said but when you collect
34:41
money from equivalents clients if he
34:43
needs that needs ten taka tomorrow he
34:46
can't
come to you and things like that
34:48
so I want him to have safe accessible
34:51
money so I said all right in that case
34:55
you have to fund me so we have this
35:00
system
of so we have the mobile money
35:03
transfer and while or wallet in our
35:07
system now in Bangladesh so bread Bank
35:10
is the first bank in Bangladesh to have
35:12
mobile
transfer mobile accounts so we
35:16
are now have we have just started
so he
35:18
gave me twelve million dollars to to do
35:22
the marketing of it we invested about 10
35:26
million
ourselves for the hardware
35:29
four you have to keep 30 million
35:32
accounts in a computer system so you
35:34
need a lot of hardware and very powerful
35:38
hardware
so anyway so he gave us to
35:42
eternal million to expand the program
so
35:44
we now have 12 to million clients and
35:47
hopefully we'll have maybe 30 40 50
35:52
million
clients in course of time saving
35:55
money it's not saving not necessarily
35:57
just saving but also transferring money
35:59
to others so it becomes so they become
36:01
bank
you know so account holder so
36:06
Bangladesh Sri Ram - the poor countries
36:07
I think we will become the first country
36:09
where almost universal bank accounts
36:12
holders
everybody who bank I got all
36:14
that so that's is the technology is
36:17
going to bring kind of new avenues of
36:21
for poor people to have access to kind
36:24
of thing
that they never had access to
36:26
the other thing that mobile technology
36:28
will bring you and I have not even
36:30
touched that and the most important
36:33
thing is
education not mobile technology
36:35
technology i.t i.t is going to make
it
36:39
possible for us to put educational
36:42
materials on the websites for for the
36:46
children
in the remotest villages which
36:49
has connected with the internet could
36:51
have access to already Harvard and MIT
36:54
is providing courses that Bangladesh is
36:58
can
take from Bangladesh sitting there
37:01
but then primary and secondary
school
37:04
children their teachers who are half
37:06
educated who themselves need education
37:10
they
will we can all be helped through
37:15
websites and so on if the right
content
37:18
is available so brac is now I've got 30
37:21
people working on content development in
37:23
primary
and secondary education so
37:25
hopefully when in the next five years
we
37:27
have connectivity all over the country
37:29
we should have accessed new kind of
37:32
content
here's a different question this
37:39
questioner says that the MDGs the
37:42
Millennium Development Goals are coming
37:44
to an end is there anything that brat
37:46
can contribute
to plan the next set of
37:48
goals and what would Brack have done
37:50
differently with the current MDGs the
37:52
MDGs so far is fine in the sense that
37:55
for example
they talk about education so
37:59
education means MDG goal is to get
all
38:03
children enrolled into primary school
38:06
the quality of education they don't talk
38:08
about
they don't even talk about
38:10
finishing primary school and how many
38:13
years of primary school they don't talk
38:15
about that and this so for the first
38:18
phase
enrolling children into school was
38:21
probably a good goal to have
and not
38:24
bother too much about quality although
38:26
quality is important but now the next
38:30
MDG will
need to have some kind of a
38:32
quality measurement in terms of mdj
38:36
education for example my bad thing is
38:40
which I am trying to promote and there
38:44
is a
eminent groups group of person with
38:46
who is advising the secretary-general
is
38:50
the is the president of Indonesia Prime
38:53
Minister of England Britain and the
38:58
president
of Sierra Leone is Ellen
39:01
Johnson Sirleaf and bang bang and the
39:06
British prime minister so these three
39:08
are now trying to develop the next with
39:13
their
Secretariat trying to develop the
39:15
next Millennium Development Goals
39:17
so I'm I've got many things many agenda
39:20
for them so I will be writing a couple
39:24
of operates
in New York Times to the
39:25
next few days
39:27
this facility back to attract your
39:29
attention
so one is legal empowerment of
39:33
the poor it's not just empowering
with
39:37
this that or the other but we want legal
39:40
empowerment in other words people should
39:43
have
rights of things Bangladesh has got
39:46
for example has got a legislation
for
39:51
that the children between the ages of 6
39:54
and 10 must be in school but one of
39:57
those government
doesn't give guarantee
39:59
that every child will have a school
40:01
place we don't have another school place
40:03
so there is no right to education so we
40:07
will
don't want right to education not
40:10
just you know children will should
be
40:13
provided education but children should
40:16
have right to education so that's one
40:18
more
area the other is right to jobs
40:22
right to enterprise right for to
to be
40:31
in a place where you have you you are
40:34
may be squatting you are what I'm
40:36
talking about
is slum dwellers wherever
40:40
they are staying some kind of a right
to
40:42
give to be given to them so that they
40:44
can have access to water access to
40:46
sanitation
so these are rights that we
40:49
would be seeing in the next millennium
40:51
development goals and I hope that that
40:55
we are all will we all participate in in
41:00
designing
and next million in
41:02
development goal which would be
41:04
important
41:05
it's a different kind of question
this
41:09
person would like to get your sense of
41:11
how Bangladesh will confront global
41:13
warming
in the rise of oceans which
41:15
clearly is yes it is a major threat
for
41:20
Bangladesh Bangladesh is in the
41:21
forefront of this struggle to adapt
41:25
itself
to the sea level rises already
41:30
one sees a lot of things happening
to
41:32
Bangladesh I mean sea level hasn't
41:34
really reasoned by so many feet or
41:36
anything
like that but more cyclones are
41:39
happening more droughts is happening
the
41:42
water water pattern is changing all
41:46
kinds of things are happening and then
41:48
as although
she has not really come into
41:51
Bangladesh but is the tides bring in
41:54
more water saline water into the soil so
41:56
the rice growing fields have suddenly
41:59
become
salinated this saline soil so
42:03
there has been lot of research by
Eyrie
42:05
on Saran resistant rice varieties Saran
42:09
resistant wheat varieties and things
42:11
like that
so these new kinds of seed
42:15
breeding we have been working on for
42:17
last the last 20 years brac is not
42:20
working on that in Bangladesh and
42:22
introducing
new varieties of crops as
42:25
well as new resistant varieties
42:28
surrender resistant varieties of rice
42:30
and other crops so that's one area
42:33
agricultural
research how to operate in
42:36
a different context also drought
42:41
resistant varieties of rice rice which
42:44
takes less water crops which take less
42:47
water
and so on so so there is a
42:49
research going on all the time and plant
42:51
breeding and then of course I see last
42:56
ten years looking at southern Bangladesh
42:59
there
are lot of people have moved
43:02
already because they realized the death
43:04
of
43:05
many have
gone into India because
43:09
there's the border is porous and many
43:12
have come to the towns Dhaka and
43:16
Chittagong large towns so this is
43:19
happening
so population
43:21
you know migration is happening quite a
43:23
bit so and then of course the other
43:29
thing is
that you know we need to
43:32
ourselves prepared they prepare for not
43:38
only adaptation but mitigation also so
43:42
we are looking at that but I think
43:44
Bangladesh
will need a lot of support
43:47
from donor countries to try and adapt
43:51
itself to the situation that we find
43:53
ourselves we have a number of questions
43:56
from
people who are really interested in
43:58
the the way in which brac needs
to adapt
44:01
to work in other countries especially in
44:02
Africa so different variations about
44:05
tweaking
the model or what kind of
44:06
cultural challenges as you find and how
44:09
can you effectively move programs that
44:12
have been successful in Bangladesh to
44:14
places
right right well this is this is
44:17
a problem and didi Steve Jobs wife
44:22
Lorraine Jobs once asked me she said how
44:26
come breck took 30 years to come out of
44:29
Bangladesh
slice leave it us for at
44:34
least another problem we need us for
44:36
another hundred years or so but but we
44:39
are not as a global thinkers as you
44:42
people
are we are concerned with our own
44:45
country and we haven't solved
our
44:47
problems yet but then it took us 30
44:50
years most most Bangladeshis don't even
44:54
think
that they should go to another
44:55
country they should first try and
44:57
service their own country but then the
45:00
reason I came out of Bangladesh is
45:01
because
Afghanistan looked similar to
45:04
Bangladesh in 1972 and so I thought
that
45:07
I we could do something about it so we
45:10
went to Afghanistan we found different
45:12
culture
our microfinance
45:16
loan officer old man in Bangla most of
45:19
them are men in Bangladesh but it is we
45:22
were in Afghanistan and we wanted to
45:23
serve
the women borrowers they said men
45:27
can't men men won't be allowed
to see
45:29
women so I said alright fine we'll have
45:33
all the women loan officers so we hired
45:35
all
women loan officers but then the
45:38
Afghan said we need to have chaperone
45:40
for them to go to the village
45:45
so no chaperone I said no chaperone if
45:48
they want
to have a job in bribe they
45:50
will have to work on their own so we
45:53
held tight with no nothing doing but
45:57
then we started recruiting women and
45:59
they started
going to the village
46:01
serving their own women as back to
46:04
finance clients and so it worked quite
46:06
well so there was no problem a problem
46:09
was
only this adaptation not male
46:12
workers but female workers the other
46:16
thing that I have having worked in half
46:19
of Africa and other countries in Asia I
46:22
find
in the poor people's aspirations
46:25
dreams and struggles are same almost
46:27
everywhere and they're not punch changed
46:32
and necessary for you know in our
46:34
program that
we now have focused on web
46:37
horn on poor people the the adaptation
46:41
as I mentioned is this kind of
46:43
adaptation who goes and who talks with
46:46
whom and
things like that ultimately of
46:50
course breaths work will not be done
46:53
will be done by local people because I'm
46:56
automated I believe that a country's
46:58
development
depends on its own people
47:00
and the leadership must stop from them
47:02
so we are therefore temporarily in other
47:05
countries we have some
47:08
probably some expertise
having worked
47:12
for last 40 years in Poverty Alleviation
47:14
we want to transfer this to locals and
47:18
then
once they can do it themselves we
47:22
would like to withdraw so basically
47:24
there will be practice in Tanzania and
47:26
Uganda and and in Africa and and and
47:30
Afghanistan
but then they'll be run by
47:32
Afghans I didn't want Bangladesh's to
go
47:35
and rule the roost there at all there
47:40
several questions about development
47:43
programs
one is about the United States
47:46
and given the rhetoric about reducing
47:49
foreign aid yes
47:51
what
does RAC have to say about that and
47:53
also how would you foreign aid
47:54
coordinated how would you also talk to
47:57
China about how it should effectively
47:58
use its
resources to promote development
48:01
especially in Africa yes so I did
a
48:05
foreign aid of course is a different
48:07
thing I mean a United States government
48:09
is
not very generous as you know only
48:12
point less than 2% of GDP 0.2
percent of
48:16
GDP goes to foreign donors but then
48:19
people in the United States are very
48:20
generous
and through foundations and
48:24
other kinds of giving the United States
48:26
gave about three times as much or more
48:30
than that five times as much what the
48:32
government
does to through International
48:36
Development so so I wouldn't so the
48:40
government is his his less generous but
48:45
the people are very generous and give
48:47
money
for International Development
48:50
so what China China is a funny country
48:55
funny country in the sense that they are
48:57
doing is so well in developing their own
49:03
economy
but they've got poverty a lot of
49:06
poverty is inside China and you
know the
49:10
Chinese poverty line is lower than
49:12
bangladesh's it's 82 cents per capita is
49:18
below
that they call it poverty
49:21
about that it's okay so so it's if the
49:26
property line is very low and that's why
49:28
China shows less than 10% poverty but
49:31
for what
he will probably be more like
49:32
15 20 percent so that's one area in
what
49:36
and and so the China to some extent
49:40
looks a little away about their poor
49:44
people
and I had the Minister of poverty
49:47
Port alleviation in China I hosted
him
49:52
in brac for a week and he saw the
49:55
programs and so on so I was hoping that
49:59
there
would be some change in their
50:01
policies about about poor people and
50:03
they had the the way they treat their
50:05
poor so that's the other area that they
50:12
need
to really focus on the other area
50:15
that the last two six months I
receive
50:20
two invitations from China both of them
50:23
are on a very very noble kind of subject
50:28
is
China China is afraid of being what
50:36
is called being in a middle
income trap
50:42
you know about this right China is
50:46
afraid of middle income trap so I said
50:49
well
so I said what do you want me to
50:52
talk about it so he said well you
have
50:56
you have ideas about things that we
50:59
could do to avoid middle income trap so
51:05
I said
off the cuff I'll tell you this
51:07
ambassador ambassador who came to
see me
51:09
so I can't manage to go to this
51:11
conference but I tell you one or two
51:13
things
that I think will be important
51:15
and for you to do to avoid billion
51:19
contract because the two countries that
51:21
have become high-income country in the
51:23
last
thirty years are Singapore and
51:27
Korea
51:29
and what have they done that the others
51:32
in
there among themselves their peers
51:36
didn't do I can see only two
things only
51:39
one thing singapore built a fairly high
51:42
quality university which is sort of is
51:48
the
powerhouse of creating jobs
51:52
enterprise innovation all kinds of
51:54
things like that
51:55
and
so is korea so if you want to build
52:01
China as a high income country
then you
52:06
have to build a dozen Oxford dozen
52:10
Cambridge doesn't Harvard and doesn't
52:15
Stanford
do that and then you can build
52:20
a high income Society so I said what
he
52:22
said why is this so I said well it's
52:27
because in order to build these
52:30
universities
you need to have and out
52:33
them well you have to give complete
52:36
freedom to and for the intellect for the
52:38
intellectuals so there will be no
52:40
controls
of state control you have to
52:43
forego about what you you can't you
52:48
can't get the faculty to think only on
52:50
the what the party line on the party
52:53
line at
all then you won't have it and
52:56
the third thing is that they must
be
52:59
self-governing institutions like
53:02
universities are if you can build that
53:05
then
you will have a high income Society
53:07
you can't then you pay we're
coming
53:15
nearly to the close and there are two
53:17
questions here that are more about brac
53:20
the
institution one of them you can
53:22
answer very quickly which is someone
53:25
would like to know about brac in the
53:27
United States and how they can support
53:28
brac
in the US and the second question I
53:32
think is a very appropriate
way to end
53:34
and it comes from another iconic NGO
53:37
leader
53:38
this one from Indonesia pop about a
new
53:41
crop
53:41
so
his question is does brac have a
53:45
succession plan beyond your leadership
53:46
so I think that's an appropriate way to
53:48
end but before that say something about
53:51
and
we talked about this earlier so I
53:52
know it's a fair question just
say a
53:54
board about brac us a black you say well
53:57
we have got a brekkie you say who is a
53:59
friend
of mine who has been no who is
54:02
known black for a long time his word
for
54:06
for foundation in Bangladesh is now
54:08
president of black USA Susan Davis and
54:11
she
has got about ten staff working for
54:16
her
54:16
and raising about twenty to twenty-five
54:19
million
from foundations a ID and v like
54:24
that for black programs in Africa
bread
54:27
programs in Bangladesh we can raise
54:28
enough money for ourselves but is the
54:31
new programs
which has improved proven
54:33
themselves they need a little bit money
54:37
which is from institutions we can take
54:40
risks so so that's the reason why we
54:43
find it
20 because so so we are raising
54:46
money and we we aren't known by
I mean
54:49
we have got some some very loyal donors
54:52
in the United States
54:53
Soros George Soros is
a good friend he
54:56
funds anything that I placed before him
54:59
almost then Bill and Melinda Gates are
55:02
good friends they would see anything
55:05
that practice
could they help with if it
55:09
is within their within their mandate
55:11
they will do it so we have some good
55:14
friends and we are we are getting good
55:15
support
the last question was was
55:20
succession well I have already retired
55:23
more or less from day to day running of
55:26
brac I still go to office but but that's
55:29
a
habit rather than yes they spend about
55:33
eight hours in the office
people come
55:36
and see me I give them advice and I have
55:38
a one a monthly one day one they are a
55:41
month
I have a meeting with with the
55:43
management but that's about all
55:44
but I've tried to make
55:48
BRAC
has independent of me as possible
55:52
over the last 10 years I've been
55:53
gradually extricating myself myself from
55:56
responsibilities for brac and I hope
55:58
that I've
got a good leadership even
56:00
better than what I did and I've always
56:04
felt that I we need very high quality
56:07
people in to run brac and I'm trying to
56:11
I've
got them thank you thank you so
56:22
much this concludes the evening
on
56:24
behalf of the World Affairs Council in
56:26
the Asia Foundation
56:27
I want to thank you sir
faucet peasant
56:29
oven for being with us tonight
56:31
and thank you all from all of you for
56:34
many
many exciting questions I'm sorry
56:36
we couldn't take every single
one but I
56:38
hope you've enjoyed the evening and
56:40
thank you all for being here..