Creating A World Without Poverty

297 Pages·2009·4.64 MB·English

by  Muhammad Yunus

A U T H OR OF T HE NEW YORK TIMES B E S T S E L L ER
B A N K ER TO T HE P O OR
M U H A M M AD
C r éa tin World
W i t h o ut Poverty
Social Business and the Future of Capi tal i sm
WINNERS
of the
OBEL PEAC
PRIZE
$26.00/131.50 CAN/X15.99
W
HAT IF YOU COULD HARNESS THE POWER
of the free market to solve the problems
of poverty, hunger, and inequality? To some,
it sounds impossible. But Nobel Peace Prize­
winner Muhammad Yunus is doing exactly
that. As founder of Grameen Bank, Yunus
pioneered microcredit, the innovative banking
program that provides poor people—mainly
women—with small loans they use to launch
businesses and lift their families out of poverty.
In the past thirty years, microcredit has spread
to every continent and benefited over 100
million families.
But Yunus remained unsatisfied. Much more
could be done, he believed, if the dynamics
of capitalism could be applied to humanity's
greatest challenges.
Now, in Creating a World Without Poverty,
Yunus goes beyond microcredit to pioneer the
idea of social business—a completely new way to
use the creative vibrancy of business to tackle
social problems from poverty and pollution to
inadequate health care and lack of education.
This book describes how Yunus—in partner­
ship with some of the world's most visionary
business leaders—has launched the world's
first purposely designed social businesses.
From collaborating with Danone to produce
affordable, nutritious yogurt for malnourished
children in Bangladesh to building eyecare
hospitals that will save thousands of poor people
from blindness, Creating a World Without Poverty
offers a glimpse of the amazing future Yunus
forecasts for a planet transformed by thousands
of social businesses. Yunus's "Next Big Idea"
offers a pioneering model for nothing less than
a new, more humane form of capitalism.
Muhammad Yunus was bom in
Chittagong, a seaport in Bangladesh. The
third of fourteen children, he was educated
at Dhaka University and was awarded a
Fulbright scholarship to study economics at
Vanderbilt University. He then served as
chairman of the economics department at
Chittagong University before devoting his life
to providing financial and social services to
the poorest of the poor. He is the founder and
managing director of Grameen Bank and the
author of the bestselling Banker to the Poor.
Yunus and Grameen Bank are winners of the
2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
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MUHAMMAD
Y U N US
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"By giving poor people the power to help themselves, Dr.Yunus
has offered them something far more valuable than a plate of food—
security in its most fundamental form."
—Former President Jimmy Carter
"Muhammad Yunus is a practical visionary who has improved
the lives of millions of people in his native Bangladesh and
elsewhere in the world." —Los Angeles Times
"[Yunus's] ideas have already had a great impact on the
Third World, and... hearing his appeal for a 'poverty-free world'
from the source itself can be as stirring as that all-American
myth of bootstrap success." —The Washington Post
"[Social business] marries the interests of corporations with economic
development in a way that has never been tried before.... Yunus
isn't calling for capitalism's abolition; he's calling for its enlightenment."
—Sheri Prasso, Fortune magazine
$26.00/131.50 CANA£15.99
Creating a World
Without Poverty
Also by Muhammad Yunus
Banker to the Poor
M U H A M M AD
Y UN US
Creating a World
Without Poverty
Social Business and the Future of Capitalism
KARL WEBER
PUBLICAFFAIRS
New Yor\
Copyright © 2007 by Muhammad Yunus.
All photos courtesy of Grameen Bank.
Published in the United States by PublicAffairs™,
a member of the Perseus Books Group.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever
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Book Design by Pauline Brown.
Set in Adobe Garamond 11.5 point type by the Perseus Books Group.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Yunus, Muhammad, 1940-
Creating a world without poverty : social business and the future of
capitalism / Muhammad Yunus With Karl Weber. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58648-493-4 (hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-58648-493-1 (hardcover)
1. Social responsibility of business. 2. Industries—Social aspects.
3. Poverty—Prevention. I. Weber, Karl. II. Title.
HD60.Y86 2007
338.7—dc22 2007034545
10 9 87 6 54 3 21
To everyone who wants
to create a world
where not a single person is poor