Executive Committee

Muhammad Yunus was born in 28th June, 1940 in the village of Bathua, in Hathazari, Chittagong, the business centre of what was then Eastern Bengal. He was the third of 14 children of whom five died in infancy. His father was a successful goldsmith who always encouraged his sons to seek higher education. But his biggest influence was his mother, Sufia Khatun, who always helped any poor that knocked on their door. This inspired him to commit himself to eradication of poverty. His early childhood years were spent in the village. In 1947, his family moved to the city of Chittagong, where his father had the jewelery business.

In 1974, Professor Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi economist from Chittagong University, led his students on a field trip to a poor village. They interviewed a woman who made bamboo stools, and learnt that she had to borrow the equivalent of 15p to buy raw bamboo for each stool made. After repaying the middleman, sometimes at rates as high as 10% a week, she was left with a penny profit margin. Had she been able to borrow at more advantageous rates, she would have been able to amass an economic cushion and raise herself above subsistence level.

Realizing that there must be something terribly wrong with the economics he was teaching, Yunus took matters into his own hands, and from his own pocket lent the equivalent of ? 17 to 42 basket-weavers. He found that it was possible with this tiny amount not only to help them survive, but also to create the spark of personal initiative and enterprise necessary to pull themselves out of poverty.

Against the advice of banks and government, Yunus carried on giving out ‘micro-loans’, and in 1983 formed the Grameen Bank, meaning ‘village bank’ founded on principles of trust and solidarity. In Bangladesh today, Grameen has 1,084 branches, with 12,500 staff serving 2.1 million borrowers in 37,000 villages. On any working day Grameen collects an average of $1.5 million in weekly installments. Of the borrowers, 94% are women and over 98% of the loans are paid back, a recovery rate higher than any other banking system. Grameen methods are applied in projects in 58 countries, including the US, Canada, France, The Netherlands and Norway.

Kanayo F. Nwanze was named the fifth President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), on April 1, 2009.  He was elected President by delegates from IFAD’s 165 member states.  Nwanze served as IFAD’s Vice-President for two years before his recent promotion. During that time, he championed and led the implementation of key processes that have improved the quality of IFAD’s operations in developing countries.

A Nigerian national, Nwanze has a strong record as an advocate and leader of change and a keen understanding of the complexity of development issues.  His 30 years of job experience spans three continents.  His work has focused on poverty reduction through agriculture, rural development, and research.

Previously, Mr. Nwanze served ten years as Director-General of the Africa Rice Center (WARDA).  Today, WZARD is a leading International Agricultural Research Center, with a strong record of scientific achievements.  Nwaze was instrumental in introducing and promoting New Rice for Africa (NERICA), a high-yield, drought- and pest-resistant rice variety developed specifically for the African landscape. By increasing the Centre’s human, capital and financial resources, he transformed WARDA from an association covering only countries in West Africa to a continent-wide organization with an international reputation for excellence.  Mr. Nwanze also held senior positions at a number of research centres affiliated with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), where he promoted public- and private-sector partnerships.

He is a member of several scientific Associations and Board member of many Africa-based Institutions.  He has been published in over 50 refereed journals, 40 peer-reviewed conference papers, and several books.

Dr. John Hatch is the founder of FINCA and the creator of Village Banking—a unique and influential method for delivering small loans, savings, and other financial services to the poor worldwide.

During his early career, Hatch served with the Peace Corps in Colombia, and as a regional director in Peru. As a graduate student, he won a Fulbright grant to conduct research in Peru, where he spent two crop cycles as a hired laborer working for subsistence farmers and documenting their agricultural practices.
In his work with the rural poor, Hatch found that most credit programs were administered by outside experts. This management style resulted in poor repayment rates and low morale among borrowers. Believing that the poor lacked neither ambition nor skill, but simply resources, in 1984, John created the Village Banking method. This method allowed the poor to obtain loans without collateral—their main obstacle to accessing credit—at interest rates they could afford. It brought neighbors together in groups, giving them the collective power to disburse, invest, and collect loan capital as they saw fit. The results among FINCA’s earliest clients were improved earnings and family nutrition, high repayment rates, and increased empowerment.
When Hatch began lending to women, he saw the tremendous potential of Village Banking as an anti-poverty tool: “Our focus on women was the result of a growing conviction that the fastest way to affect the welfare of children was through aid to their mothers,” said Hatch.

Over 22 years with FINCA, Hatch served as president, and as chief of party for programs in El Salvador and Guatemala; he retired as FINCA’s director of research in 2006. Today, the organization he founded reaches half a million families in 21 countries with small loans, insurance, savings programs, and other services. Hatch continues as a FINCA board member, advisor, speaker, lecturer, and fundraiser. He is continuing his research on the impact of Village Banking and is active in FINCA’s annual student symposium and research awards competition.

Throughout his career, Hatch supported efforts to promote microcredit worldwide. Since founding FINCA in 1984, he has shared his Village Banking methodology with numerous nongovernmental organizations. As a result, today there are hundreds of Village Banking programs worldwide. Hatch is also co-founder of the Global Microcredit Summit.

Chief Bisi is a pioneer in the economic empowerment of women, a gifted advocate for their full participation in policy and decision making, and a long-time leader in the fight to free her country from poverty, hunger, malnutrition, environmental degradation and injustice. For nearly two decades she has been promoting the active involvement of Africans in development issues that affect them.

A hands-on activist, Chief Bisi’s strength is derived from a firm foundation in the villages of Africa, and the committed partnership of her late husband, Peter Adeleke Ogunleye. She began helping women organize themselves by donating one month’s salary to a group of rural women to use as seed money to start their own business. The repaid loan was reinvested in other groups until, in 1982, Chief Bisi founded the Country Women Association of Nigeria (COWAN) with six cooperatives of 150 members.

Today COWAN has over 1,390 groups and 31,000 active members across eight states of Nigeria. It is known for its women-designed programs in credit, agriculture and small business development. In 1993 COWAN incorporated into its program the Centre for Development and Self-Help Activities (CEDSHA), created by Peter Ogunleye in support of youth and rural women. In 1994, in partnership with the international organization CEDPA (Center for Development and Population Activities), COWAN began an integrated health and family planning project designed to reach 3.5 million women in Ondo State.

Through COWAN, Chief Bisi established NARWA: the Network of African Rural Women Associations. An articulate spokesperson in the international community, she also currently serves as co-chair of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization, and is one of eight women on the 20-member United Nations Earth Council.

Chief Bisi’s inspired leadership grows out of her tenacity and vision, long before it was fashionable, that rural women possess the desire, capability and commitment to work to improve their own lives and their communities.

José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, also known as Mel Zelaya, is the President of Honduras since January 27 2006. On November 27, 2005, as the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH) candidate he beat the National Party of Honduras (PNH’s) Porfirio Pepe Lobo in the presidential election, replacing Ricardo Maduro as President of Honduras on January 27, 2006 as the PLH’s 5th President in the national stadium in Tegucigalpa in front of 250 dignitaries, including leaders from other countries.

As an agriculturalist and businessman, prior to his presidency he served as the Director of the Honduran National Business Council (COHEP) and president of National Association of Timber Companies and Workers (ANETRAMA). Affiliated with the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH) since 1970, Zelaya became an active member 10 years later. He joined the PLH in 1970 and became active a decade later.
He was a deputy in the National Congress 3 consecutive times between 1985 and 1998. He held many positions within the PLH and was Minister for Investment in charge of the Honduran Social Investment Fund (FHIS) in a previous PLH government. During the election campaign Zelaya promised to double police numbers from 9,000 to 18,000. He also promised to initiate a program of re-education amongst the Mara Salvatrucha gangs. In this question his approach was very different from that of his main rival Pepe Lobo, who advocated the death penalty for these groups of delinquents, leading the Honduran media to describe the country as having chosen reconciliation over confrontation. As president, Zelaya has increased funding for small and medium businesses, created a program for improving rural food production, lowered fuel prices and funded reforestation projects.

Mr. Pawar, known to the masses as Saheb, was born on the 12th December 1940. Mr. Pawar hails from a family of Baramati, Pune [Maharashtra,India]. Starting early in politics, he became president of the State Youth Congress at 24; member of the State Cabinet 5 years later. In 1978, he became the Chief Minister of Maharashtra at the age of 38. Mr. Pawar completed two more terms as Chief Minister before being appointed country’s Defense Minister in June 1991. In March 1993,he became Chief Minister of the state for the fourth time. In 1995 he was elected as a Member Of Parliament(Lok sabha)and became Leader of the Congress Party in Lok Sabha. Mr. Sharad Pawar was once again elected as a Member Of Parliament(Lok Sabha) in 1998 and became the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha. Mr.Pawar has been Chief Minister of Maharashtra for seven years out of his 32 years in politics.

During these years, Maharashtra became and retained a position as the leading industrial state in the country and also a state with a very managed treasury. Mr. Pawar is an economic liberal and believes that only large-scale investment leading to rapid economic development and increased employment makes a country a real international power. His passion for innovative technology is reflected in his approach to the Vasantdada Sugar Institute, which he heads. It is a premier institute for sugar technology in India, with links with international institutes. At a national level it is his belief that India can and should be South Asian and Pacific hub for the sunrise sectors of software production,telecommunication and information technology. His constituency houses a number of products in these sectors.

Socially Mr. Pawar is modern thinker. In India, where caste and communal issues tend to play major in politics, Mr. Pawar has always stood for society free of caste and communal biases. this has not meant a colorless monotony. As Chief Minister he has consistent encouraged people of different communities, living in Maharashtra, to develop their special cultural and ethic identity while contributing to the over all development of the state. Mr. Pawar married to Pratibha. They have a daughter Supriya, who is also married. Mr. Pawar is very truly a post independence 20th century Indian, sustaining the best of Indian social values while absorbing the best that the west has to offer.

This visionery is the President of Vidya Pratishathan, a well known academic Institution. Acknowledging the pulse of rapidly changing time, he brought IT revolution in Baramati to facilitate this innovative knowledge to the common citizen.

A global financier and philanthropist, George Soros is the founder and chairman of a network of foundations that promote, among other things, the creation of open, democratic societies based upon the rule of law, market economies, transparent and accountable governance, freedom of the press, and respect for human rights.

Soros was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1930. In 1956, Soros immigrated to the United States. He worked as a trader and analyst until 1963. During this period, Soros adapted Popper’s ideas to develop his own “theory of reflexivity,” a set of ideas that seeks to explain the relationship between thought and reality, which he used to predict, among other things, the emergence of financial bubbles. Soros began to apply his theory to investing and concluded that he had more talent for trading than for philosophy. In 1967 he helped establish an offshore investment fund; and in 1973 he set up a private investment firm that eventually evolved into the Quantum Fund, one of the first hedge funds, through which he accumulated a vast fortune.

As his financial success mounted, Soros applied his wealth to help foster the development of open societies. In 1979, Soros provided funds to help black students attend the University of Cape Town in apartheid South Africa. Soon he created a foundation in Hungary to support culture and education and the country’s transition to democracy. (One of his projects imported photocopy machines that allowed citizens and activists in Hungary to spread information and publish censored materials.) Soros also distributed funds to the underground Solidarity movement in Poland, Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet physicist-dissident Andrei Sakharov. In 1982, Soros named his philanthropic organization the Open Society Fund, in honor of Karl Popper, and began granting scholarships to students from Eastern Europe. Bolstered by the success of these projects, Soros created more programs to assist the free flow of information. He supported educational radio programs in Mongolia and later contributed $100 million to provide Internet access to every regional university in Russia.

The magnitude and geographical scope of his philanthropic commitments, coupled with the core principle of fostering open societies, has allowed Soros to transcend the limitations of many national governments and international institutions. During the 1980s, Soros financed a trip by young economists at a reform-minded think tank in China to a business university in Budapest; he also established a grantmaking foundation in China to foster civil society and transparency. In 1991, he helped found the Central European University, a graduate institution in Budapest that focuses on social and political development. Soros spent $50 million to help the citizens of Sarajevo endure the city’s siege during the Bosnian war, funding among other projects a water-filtration plant that allowed residents to avoid having to draw water from distribution points targeted by Serb snipers. Most recently, he has provided $50 million to support the Millennium Villages initiative, which seeks to lift some of the least developed villages in Africa out of poverty.

In 1993, Soros created the Open Society Institute, which supports the Soros foundations working to develop democratic institutions throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. His network of philanthropic organizations dedicated to building open societies has expanded to include more than 60 countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Despite the breadth of his endeavors, Soros is personally involved in planning and implementing many of the foundation network’s projects. His visionary efforts have produced a remarkable record of successful philanthropy, including efforts to free developmentally challenged people from life-long confinement in state institutions, to provide palliative care to the dying, to win release for prisoners held without legal grounds in penitentiaries in Nigeria, to halt the spread of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, to create debate societies, to promote freedom of the press, and to help resource-rich countries establish mechanisms to manage their revenues in a way that will promote economic growth and good governance rather than poverty and instability.

In 2003, Soros said that removing President George W. Bush from office was one of his main priorities. During the 2004 campaign, he donated significant funds to various groups dedicated to defeating the president.

Juan Somavia was elected to serve as the ninth Director-General of the ILO by the Governing Body on 23 March 1998. His five-year term of office began on 4 March 1999, when he became the first representative from the Southern hemisphere to head the Organization. In March 2003, Mr. Somavia was re-elected for a second five-year term, and for a third term on 18 November 2008.

An attorney by profession, Mr. Somavia has had a long and distinguished career in civil and international affairs. His wide experience in all areas of public life - as a diplomat and academic - and his involvement in social development, business and civil organizations have all helped shape his vision of the need to secure decent work for women and men throughout the world.

At his initiative, the ILO created in 2002 the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization. Composed of Heads of State, employers’ and workers’ representatives, policy-makers and academics and social actors from all walks of life, it was the first official body to take a systematic look at the social impact of globalization. Its operative recommendations include a call for Decent Work as a means of achieving a fair globalization that creates opportunities for all.

In June 2008, the International Labour Conference adopted the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization. It recasts the ILO’s mission to meet the challenges of globalization in the twenty-first century through the Decent Work Agenda.

Mr. Somavia has always shown a strong interest in development cooperation and economic and social affairs. During the late 1960s, while working in GATT, he promoted the participation of developing countries in the Kennedy Round. From 1970 to 1973, Mr. Somavia served as Member and Chairman of the Board of the Andean Development Corporation in Caracas and worked intensively in favour of regional integration. He was also a Member of the Executive Committee of the International Foundation for Development Alternatives in Nyon, Switzerland from 1977 to 1995 and has been on the Advisory Committee of Development Dialogue (published by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation) for more than 25 years.

Mr. Somavia’s multifaceted career has been driven by a strong concern for social justice, peace, and human rights. He also participated actively in the restoration of democracy in Chile. Not only was he President of the International Commission of the Democratic Coalition in Chile but also founder and Secretary-General of the South American Peace Commission (1986-90). His pursuit of these ideals has earned him several citations and awards, among them the Leonides Proaño Peace Prize from the Latin American Human Rights Association, the International Golden Dove of Peace awarded in July 2005 by the Italian NGO Archivio Disarmo, and most recently the Silver Rose Award from SOLIDAR for his vision of decent work and for defending the rights and freedoms of workers.