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Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank / Mohammed Junus und die Grameen Bank erhalten den Friedensnobelpreis 2006

"... for their efforts to create economic and social development from below" / "... für ihre Bemühungen um die wirtschaftliche und soziale Entwicklung von unten"

Im vergangenen Jahr gab es manche Diskussion über die Vergabe des Friedensnobelpreises an El Baradei und "seine" Atomenergiebehörde IAEA (siehe: "Friedensnobelpreis für die Weiterverbreitung der Atomenergie?"). Auch die Preisvergabe 2006 dürfte nicht unumstritten sein, zumal aussichtsreiche Bewerber/innen zuvor höher "gehandelt" worden waren, z.B. der ehemalige finnische Präsident Martti Ahtisaari oder die tschetschenische Menschenrechtlerin Lidija Jussupowa. Hinzu kommt, dass der Friedensbegriff immer weiter ausgedehnt wird. Wenigstens sind die Großevent-Strategen Bob Geldorf und der Musiker Bono leer ausgegangen. Ihr Engagement zugunsten der Dritten Welt war doch zu sehr auf bloßen Effekt abgestellt. Immerhin waren sie nominiert worde.
Im Folgenden dokumentieren wir die heute (13. Oktober) veröffentlichte Pressemitteilung des Nobelpreis-Komitees sowie einen Artikel über Muhammad Yunus und die Grameen Bank.
Zu einem Artikel des Nobelpreisträgers, worin er die segensreichen Wirkungen der Kleinkredite für die ländliche Bevölkerung beschreibt, geht es hier: What is Microcredit? by Muhammad Yunus.

Zusammenfassung
Der diesjährige Friedensnobelpreis geht an den Wirtschaftsfachmann Mohammed Junus und seine Organisation Microcredit aus Bangladesch. Der 66-Jährige organisiert vor allem Bankkredite für arme Menschen.
Das Norwegische Nobelkomitee würdigte am 13. Oktober deren Bemühungen um "die wirtschaftliche und soziale Entwicklung von unten". Mit Unterstützung internationaler Geldgeber gründete Junus Anfang der 1980er Jahre die Grameen-Bank. Das Geldinstitut vergibt jährlich Kredite von insgesamt rund einer halben Mrd. US-Dollar. Oft handelt es sich dabei um Summen von nur wenigen Dollar. Der Begriff "Grameen" heisst übersetzt dörflich. Über 12.000 Bankangestellte sind in mehr als 44.000 Dörfern Bangladeschs aktiv. Das fünfköpfige Nobelkomitee begründete seine Entscheidung damit, dass es "dauerhaften Frieden nicht geben kann, so lange große Bevölkerungsgruppen keine Wege aus der Armut finden". "Junus hat sich als Führungsgestalt gezeigt, der Visionen in praktische Handlung zum Vorteil von Millionen Menschen umsetzen könne", hieß es weiter. Allein in Bangladesch hätten zwei Millionen Menschen von den zinsfreien Kleinstkrediten profitiert, die ohne Sicherheit und überwiegend an Frauen vergeben werden.
Die von Junus und seiner Bank entwickelte Idee von "Mikrokrediten" sei überall von Institutionen übernommen worden und habe "den Weg in die ganze Welt gefunden. Der norwegische Komiteechef Ole Danholt Mjøs sagte, mit der Entscheidung für Junus habe man die "Erweiterung des Friedensbegriffs" bei der Nobelpreisvergabe fortgesetzt.

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006, divided into two equal parts, to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank for their efforts to create economic and social development from below. Lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Micro-credit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights.

Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries. Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea. From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty. Grameen Bank has been a source of ideas and models for the many institutions in the field of micro-credit that have sprung up around the world.

Every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life. Across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development.

Micro-credit has proved to be an important liberating force in societies where women in particular have to struggle against repressive social and economic conditions. Economic growth and political democracy can not achieve their full potential unless the female half of humanity participates on an equal footing with the male.

Yunus's long-term vision is to eliminate poverty in the world. That vision can not be realised by means of micro-credit alone. But Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that, in the continuing efforts to achieve it, micro-credit must play a major part.

Oslo, 13 October 2006

Quelle: Homepage des Osloer Nobelpreis-Komitees; http://nobelprize.org

Muhammad Yunus

Project: Grameen Bank

Muhammad Yunus has had phenomenal success helping people lift themselves out of poverty in rural Bangladesh by providing them with credit without requiring collateral. Yunus developed his revolutionary micro-credit system with the belief that it would be a cost effective and scalable weapon to fight poverty.

Yunus told his story and that of the bank in the book "Banker to the Poor," co-authored by him and Alan Jolis. In the book, Yunus recalls that in 1974 he was teaching economics at a Chittagong University in southern Bangladesh, when the country experienced a terrible famine in which thousands starved to death.

"We tried to ignore it," he says. "But then skeleton-like people began showing up in the capital, Dhaka. Soon the trickle became a flood. Hungry people were everywhere. Often they sat so still that one could not be sure whether they were alive or dead. They all looked alike: men, women, children. Old people looked like children, and children looked like old people.

The thrill he had once experienced studying economics and teaching his students elegant economic theories that could supposedly cure societal problems soon left him entirely. As the famine worsened he began to dread his own lectures.

"Nothing in the economic theories I taught reflected the life around me. How could I go on telling my students make believe stories in the name of economics? I needed to run away from these theories and from my textbooks and discover the real-life economics of a poor person's existence."

Yunus went to the nearby village of Jobra where he learned the economic realities of the poor. Yunus wanted to help, and he cooked up several plans working with his students. He found that one of his many ideas was more successful than the rest: offering people tiny loans for self-employment. Grameen Bank was born and an economic revolution had begun.

What Does Grameen Bank Do?

Grameen Bank has reversed conventional banking wisdom by focusing on women borrowers, dispensing of the requirement of collateral and extending loans only to the very poorest borrowers. In fact, to qualify for a loan from the Grameen Bank, a villager must demonstrate that her family owns less than one half acre of land.

The bank has provided $4.7 billion dollars to 4.4 million families in rural Bangladesh. With 1,417 branches, Grameen provides services in 51,000 villages, covering three quarters of all the villages in Bangladesh. Yet its system is largely based on mutual trust and the enterprise and accountability of millions of women villagers.

Today, more than 250 institutions in nearly 100 countries operate micro-credit programs based on the Grameen Bank model, while thousands of other micro-credit programs have emulated, adapted or been inspired by the Grameen Bank. According to one expert in innovative government, the program established by Yunus at the Grameen Bank "is the single most important development in the third world in the last 100 years, and I don't think any two people will disagree."

Quelle: Website "The New Heroes"; www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes


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