| Posted: May 17 2010,11:54 |
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Postal address of organization/institution
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Grameen Bank Bhaban, Mirpur - 2, Dhaka -1216, Bangladesh
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E-mail address of organization/institution
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yunus@grameen.net
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Website address of organization/institution
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http://www.grameen-info.org/
http://muhammadyunus.org/
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Telephone of organization/institution
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(880-2) 8011138
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PRIORITIES: All of the organization's domains of culture of peace activity |
EDUCATION FOR PEACE
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
HUMAN RIGHTS
WOMEN'S EQUALITY
DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION
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TOP PRIORITY: The organization's most important culture of peace activity |
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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PARTNERSHIPS AND NETWORKS: What
partnerships and networks does your organization participate in, thus
strengthening the global movement for a culture of peace? |
Grameen
Bank, in coordination with Grameen Trust jointly organize Programs a
year for potential replications of the Grameen model throughout the
world. The Dialogue is intended to provide an immersion into the
Grameen milieu, to assist in the design of Grameen type credit
programs, and to share the experiences of implementing and adopting the
Grameen Bank approach.
Participants in the dialogues are
generally potential replicators, the founders and/or chief executive of
institutions who are in a position to take decisions on behalf of their
organizations, regarding Grameen replication in their own contexts.
Currently 38 countries are replicating Grameen model that not only
emphasizes on giving out loans to poor people but also focuses on other
basic needs like healthcare, education, shelter which are the basic
indicators of peace.
Also the Yunus Centre which is the hub for
Grameen Social Businesses has been networking all over the world to
spread the concept. This centre is created to inter-connect all of the
initiatives taken in various countries within various structural
formats, such as, Institutes of Social Business, Grameen Creative
Labs, Yunus Centres, Yunus Chairs, Social Business Chairs, Social
Action Groups, Social Business Design Centres, Social Business Funds,
healthcare initiatives, environmental initiatives, etc.
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ACTIONS: What activities have
been undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence during the ten years of the Decade? If you already made a
report in 2005, your information from 2005 will be included in the 2010
report.
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(from http://www.grameen-info.org -> Methodology Breaking the vicious cycle of poverty through microcredit )
The
Grameen Bank is based on the voluntary formation of small groups of
five people to provide mutual, morally binding group guarantees in lieu
of the collateral required by conventional banks. At first only two
members of a group are allowed to apply for a loan. Depending on their
performance in repayment the next two borrowers can then apply and,
subsequently, the fifth member as well.
The assumption
is that if individual borrowers are given access to credit, they will
be able to identify and engage in viable income-generating activities -
simple processing such as paddy husking, lime-making, manufacturing
such as pottery, weaving, and garment sewing, storage and marketing and
transport services. Women were initially given equal access to the
schemes, and proved not only reliable borrowers but astute
enterpreneurs. As a result, they have raised their status, lessened
their dependency on their husbands and improved their homes and the
nutritional standards of their children. Today over 90 percent of
borrowers are women.
Intensive discipline, supervision,
and servicing characterize the operations of the Grameen Bank, which
are carried out by "Bicycle bankers" in branch units with considerable
delegated authority. The rigorous selection of borrowers and their
projects by these bank workers, the powerful peer pressure exerted on
these individuals by the groups, and the repayment scheme based on 50
weekly installments, contribute to operational viability to the rural
banking system designed for the poor. Savings have also been
encouraged. Under the scheme, there is provision for 5 percent of loans
to be credited to a group find and Tk 5 is credited every week to the
fund.
The success of this approach shows that a number
of objections to lending to the poor can be overcome if careful
supervision and management are provided. For example, it had earlier
been thought that the poor would not be able to find renumerative
occupations. In fact, Grameen borrowers have successfully done so. It
was thought that the poor would not be able to repay; in fact,
repayment rates reached 97 percent. It was thought that poor rural
women in particular were not bankable; in fact, they accounted for 94
percent of borrowers in early 1992. It was also thought that the poor
cannot save; in fact, group savings have proven as successful as group
lending. It was thought that rural power structures would make sure
that such a bank failed; but the Grameen Bank has been able to expand
rapidly. Indeed, from fewer than 15,000 borrowers in 1980, the
membership had grown to nearly 100,000 by mid-1984. By the end of 1998,
the number of branches in operation was 1128, with 2.34 million members
(2.24 million of them women) in 38,957 villages. There are 66,581
centres of groups, of which 33,126 are women. Group savings have
reached 7,853 million taka (approximately USD 162 million), out of
which 7300 million taka (approximately USD 152 million) are saved by
women.
It is estimated that the average household
income of Grameen Bank members is about 50 percent higher than the
target group in the control village, and 25 percent higher than the
target group non-members in Grameen Bank villages. The landless have
benefited most, followed by marginal landowners. This has resulted in a
sharp reduction in the number of Grameen Bank members living below the
poverty line, 20 percent compared to 56 percent for comparable
non-Grameen Bank members. There has also been a shift from agricultural
wage labour (considered to be socially inferior) to self-employment in
petty trading. Such a shift in occupational patterns has an indirect
positive effect on the employment and wages of other agricultural waged
labourers. What started as an innovative local initiative, "a small
bubble of hope", has thus grown to the point where it has made an
impact on poverty alleviation at the national level ".
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PROGRESS: Has your organization
seen progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain
of action and in your constituency during the second half of the
Decade? |
See progress in actions listed above.
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OBSTACLES: Has your organization faced any obstacles to implementing the culture of peace and nonviolence? If so, what were they?
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Not reported
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PLANS: What new engagements are
planned by your organization in the short, medium and long term to
promote a culture of peace and nonviolence? |
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GLOBAL MOVEMENT: How do you think the culture of peace and nonviolence could be strengthened and supported at the world level??
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Grameen
Bank is known for its role in fighting poverty through microcredit. As
it recognizes women’s centrality to the poverty alleviation process –as
beneficiaries of it and as active agents in promoting it- the bank has
a keen awareness of the cultural context, which conditions women’s
willingness and ability to respond economic opportunities. We strongly
believe that many of the good things that have happened at Grameen are
a result of its decision to focus on women and we are definite that the
culture of peace and non violence can be strengthened by focusing on
women empowerment.
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