WEBVTT

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We are witness to monumental
human progress.

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Over the past few decades,
the expansion of the global marketplace

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has lifted a third of the world's
population out of extreme poverty.

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Yet we are also witness
to an astounding failure.

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Our efforts to lift people up

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have left behind those
in the harshest forms of poverty,

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the ultra-poor.

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What it means to be ultra-poor
goes beyond the monetary definition

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that we're all familiar with:

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living on less than two dollars a day.

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It goes even beyond not having assets

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like livestock or land.

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To be ultra-poor means
to be stripped of your dignity,

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purpose and self-worth.

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It means living in isolation,

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because you're a burden
to your own community.

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It means being unable
to imagine a better future

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for yourself and your family.

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By the end of 2019,

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about 400 million people
were living in ultra-poverty worldwide.

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That's more than the populations
of the United States and Canada combined.

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And when calamity strikes,

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whether it's a pandemic,
a natural disaster or a manmade crisis,

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these numbers spike astronomically higher.

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My father, Fazle Abed,
gave up a corporate career

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to establish BRAC
here in Bangladesh in 1972.

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Bangladesh was a wreck,

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having just gone through
a devastating cyclone

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followed by a brutal war for independence.

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Working with the poorest of the poor,
my father realized

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that poverty was more
than the lack of income and assets.

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It was also a lack of hope.

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People were trapped in poverty,

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because they felt
their condition was immutable.

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Poverty, to them,
was like the sun and the moon --

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something given to them by God.

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For poverty reduction programs to succeed,

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they would need to instill
hope and self-worth

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so that, with a little support,

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people could lift themselves
out of poverty.

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BRAC went on to pioneer
the graduation approach,

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a solution to ultra-poverty
that addresses both income poverty

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and the poverty of hope.

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The approach works primarily with women,

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because women are
the most affected by ultra-poverty

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but also the ones most likely
to pull themselves and their families

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out of it.

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Over a two-year period,

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we essentially do four things.

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One, we meet a woman's basic needs

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by giving her food or cash,

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ensuring the minimum to survive.

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Two, we move her
towards a decent livelihood

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by giving her an asset, like livestock,

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and training her to earn money from it.

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Three, we train her to save, budget

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and invest her new wealth.

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And four, we help
to integrate her socially,

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first into groups of women like her

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and then into her community.

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Each of these elements
is key to the success of the others,

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but the real magic is the hope
and sense of possibility

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the women develop through
the close mentorship they receive.

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Let me tell you about Jorina.

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Jorina was born in a remote village
in northern Bangladesh.

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She never went to school,

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and at the age of 15,
she was married off to an abusive husband.

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He eventually abandoned her,

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leaving her with no income

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and two children who were not in school
and were severely malnourished.

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With no one to turn to for help,

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she had no hope.

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Jorina joined BRAC's
Graduation program in 2005.

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She received a dollar a week,

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two cows,

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enterprise training

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and a weekly visit from a mentor.

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She began to build her assets,

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but most importantly,

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she began to imagine a better future
for herself and her children.

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If you were visit Jorina's village today,

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you would find that she runs
the largest general store in her area.

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She will proudly show you
the land she bought

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and the house she built.

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Since we began this program in 2002,

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two million Bangladeshi women

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have lifted themselves and their families
out of ultra-poverty.

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That's almost nine million people.

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The program, which costs
500 dollars per household,

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runs for only two years,

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but the impact goes well beyond that.

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Researchers at the London
School of Economics found

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that even seven years
after entering the program,

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92 percent of participants
had maintained or increased

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their income, assets and consumption.

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Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee,

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the MIT economists who won
the Nobel Prize last year,

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led multicountry evaluations

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that identified graduation
as one of the most effective ways

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to break the poverty trap.

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But my father wasn't content

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to have found a solution
that worked for some people.

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He always wanted to know
whether we were being ambitious enough

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in terms of scale.

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So when we achieved
nationwide scale in Bangladesh,

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he wanted to know
how we could scale it globally.

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And that has to involve governments.

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Governments already dedicate
billions of dollars

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on poverty reduction programs.

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But so much of that money is wasted,

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because these programs
either don't reach the poorest,

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and even the ones that do
fail to have significant long-term impact.

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We are working to engage governments

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to help them to adopt and scale
graduation programs themselves,

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maximizing the impact
of the billions of dollars

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they already allocate
to fight ultra-poverty.

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Our plan is to help
another 21 million people

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lift themselves out of ultra-poverty

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in eight countries over the next six years

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with BRAC teams on-site
and embedded in each country.

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In July of 2019, my father was diagnosed
with terminal brain cancer

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and given four months to live.

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As he transitioned out of BRAC after
leading the organization for 47 years,

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he reminded us that throughout his life,

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he saw optimism triumph over despair,

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that when you light the spark
of self-belief in people,

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even the poorest
can transform their lives.

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My father passed away in December.

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He lit that spark for millions of people,

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and in the final days of his life,

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he implored us to continue to do so
for millions more.

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This opportunity is ours for the taking,

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so let's stop imagining
a world without ultra-poverty

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and start building that world together.

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Thank you.