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Social Business makes significant strides

S.M. Rashed Ahmed
SOCIAL Business, the brainchild of Nobel laureate Prof. Yunus, has made significant strides and impact in Bangladesh and globally in a relatively short span of time. This became clear during the recently concluded Global Social Business Summit (GSBS) 2013 in Malaysia. The GSBS, co-founded by Yunus and Hans Reitz of the German-based organisation Grameen Creative Lab, was first held in Wolfsburg, Germany, in 2009. The GSBS 2013 held in Kuala Lumpur was organised in cooperation with myHarapan, a Malaysian
youth empowerment initiative. Around 600 people from more than 50 nations attended the Summit. The largest delegation was from Bangladesh, consisting of a cross section of people including Rokeya Rahman, one of our most successful woman entrepreneurs
Prof. Yunus described how Social Business was conquering new frontiers, making inroads into traditionally conservative and powerful organisations. In this context he referred to the opening of "new doors for the Social Business beginning with the African Development Bank. It was a crucial step forward as regional banks are usually very conservative. This was made possible due to some admirers of Social Business working in the Bank; they became instrumental in changing the mindset of the policy makers in the African Development Bank which led to significant door opening for Social Business from Tunisia to Uganda." Yunus also referred to an equally significant development involving USAID. This was also due to "initiative of persons within the organisation committed to Social Business who brought about important policy changes in the US AID in favour of Social Business.”
Prof. Yunus elaborated some of the recent achievements of Social Business. These included, among others, an MOU signed between Yunus Social Business (YSB) and USAID to collaborate in promoting Social Business in various countries. The Haiti government allocated 10,000 hectares of land to YSB for using in reforestation of the Caribbean country following an agreement signed involving Yunus, Bill Clinton and Haiti's PM Laurent Lamothe. Another large joint venture is shaping up with Brazil Foods (BR Foods) which will produce poultry and create country-wide employment for the rural population of Haiti. In Albania,Yunus Social Business (YSB) has teamed up with kiva.org, a non-profit crowd-funding platform, to raise 18,000 Euros in zero-interest loans for Rozafa, a Social Business for marketing handicrafts crafted by Albanian women for the European markets.
In Mexico,the governor of Veracruz state announced his decision to launch Social Business by providing $4.5 million as grant to Yunus Social Business Fund. IN Japan, Social Business Forum Asia-2013 was organised in Osaka by Kyushu University and UBS Bank. YSB penned another agreement with Florida Ice and Farm Company (FIFCO), a Costa Rican food and beverages
company, to set up a Social Business called Nutrivita for-making baby cereal, powdered chicken soup, powdered drink and a complete meal called nutripack to fight poor nutrition in Costa Rica and other Central American countries. The Grameen Creative Lab in collaboration with YSB and myClimate, a Swiss non-profit dedicated to voluntary carbon off setting measures, created a Social Business Climate Innovation fund to develop sustainable climate innovations.
In Bangladesh, one of the first Social Businesses is Grameen Danone. Grameen partnered with the French company Danone, which is producing a low-cost nutritional yogurt affordable to the poor to reduce malnutrition amongst children. Some of the other ventures include Grameen Veolia to increase access to clean and portable water; Grameen Shakti to provide solar energy; Grameen Healthcare Services to improve healthcare; Grameen Fabrics and Fashions Ltd. to Create "Social Business industrial park" and run various Social Business garments-related activities to generate employment opportunities for young women; and Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing to improve professional level employment opportunities for young women to cite some of the achievements.
The opening session of the summit was followed by two plenary sessions. The panelists for the first plenary session included Dr. Fatima Al Ballooshi, Minister of Social Development of Bahrain; Richard Branson, Virgin Group (virtual address); Saskia Bruysten, CEO of YSB Nurfarini Daing; Eric Lesuer, Projects Director, Veolia Environment; Hans Reitz and Prof. Hiroto Yasuura, VP of Kyushu University; and Mr. Rogerio Oliveria CEO of Yunus Social Business, Brazil. The second session con-
sisted of 20 focus group sessions which went into greater depth on particular aspects of social business.
The summit in Kuala Lumpur gave renewed focus to rid the world of its mostpressing social ills through Social Business model. Malaysian Prime Minister Mohammad Najib Razak, during the closing session, declared himself a follower of Prof. Yunus and Social Business. He expressed the political will of the Malaysian government to support Social Business by committing RM 20 miliion to promote Social Business in his country.
In the context of Bangladesh for Social Business to achieve the vision of Yunus for a poverty free, equitable, economically vibrant and stable Bangladesh there is urgent need for a serious collective rethinking and action to address the larger issue, among others, of dysfunctional polity and electoral democracy. Election alone does not make a democracy; without rule of law, good governance and practice of democratic ideals there can be no democracy.
In this context it seems relevant to recall the observation of Prof. Yunus at the time of Rana Plaza Tragedy when he wrote: "Savar tragedy is a symbol of failure as a nation. The crack in Rana Plaza that caused the collapse of the building has only shown us that if we don't face up to the cracks in our state system, that we as a nation will get lost in the debris of the collapse. It made us aware of what Bangladesh's dysfunctional system has led us to."
The recent tragic events have reinforced the need to act collectively to save this Republic of ours. We have to begin anew to realise the ideals and vision which inspired our Liberation War.
The writer is a former UN Regional Representative in Kosovo. Email: rashedahmed2001@yahoo.com