Well done: Nobel for Yunus
Saturday, October 14th, 2006The Nobel committee made a good decision this week in awarding this year’s Peace Prize to Mohammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank, which Yunus founded 30 years ago, for their pioneering work in bringing micro-loans to aspiring entrepreneurs. I do wonder why it was the peace and not the economics award, but that’s just a quibble.
I first read about the Bangladeshi’s work a few years ago on MetaFilter and was suitably impressed. By seeding local groups with small amounts of cash, loans of a few dollars, generally under the equivalent of US$100, are made that completely change the financial prospects of impoverished people.
And, of course, these rising tides do spread as their money recirculates in the form of additional loans as each is repaid and new spending to other businesses in the town and region. Not fast but very effective.
