Freedom from Want: The Remarkable Success Story of BRAC, the Global Grassroots Organization That's Winning the Fight Against Poverty

by Smillie,Ian

• ISBN13: 9781565492851
• ISBN10: 1565492854
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-05-15
• Publisher: Lynne Rienner
• More Book Details

Summary

Unlike Grameen Bank, the microcredit giant whose Nobel Prize heaped it with accolades and publicity, its Bangladeshi cousin BRAC is barely known outside the country. Author Ian Smillie predicts that BRAC, which is arguably the world's largest, most diverse and most successful NGO, has little time left in the shadows. The spread of its work dwarfs any other private, government or non-profit enterprise in its impact on development, on women, on children and on thousands of communities in Asia and Africa. The Third Freedom traces BRAC's evolution from a small relief operation indistinguishable from hundreds of others, into what is undoubtedly the largest and most variegated social experiment in the developing world. BRAC's story shows how social enterprise can trump corruption; how purpose, innovation and clear thinking can overcome the most entrenched injustices that society can offer. It is a story that ranges from distant villages in Bangladesh to New York's financial district on 9/11, from war-torn Afghanistan to the vast plains of East Africa and the ruins of Southern Sudan. Partly an adventure story, partly a lesson in development economics, partly an examination of excellence in management, the book describes one of the world's most remarkable success stories, one that has transformed disaster into development and despair into hope.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Introduction: The Age of Ambition	p. 1
Sonar Bangla	p. 5
Arms and the Man	p. 13
The Plan	p. 29
The Problem	p. 35
Learning and Unlearning	p. 55
Dulling the Edge of Husbandry?	p. 69
The Learning Organization	p. 83
A Chicken and Egg Problem	p. 91
A Simple Solution	p. 103
Of Pink Elephants and 9/11	p. 117
The Mulberry Bush	p. 127
Water and Milk	p. 137
Millennium Development Goal 6 (Target 8)	p. 145
Educating Bangladesh	p. 153
Challenging the Frontiers	p. 175
University	p. 187
On Being Ready	p. 195
The Democratic Deficit	p. 209
Afghanistan	p. 223
The Source of the Nile	p. 237
In Larger Freedom	p. 245
Glossary	p. 261
List of Acronyms	p. 263
Selected Bibliography	p. 265
Index	p. 269
About the Author	p. 285
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