BRAC

BRAC was founded by Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 in Bangladesh. Abed now chairs BRAC "the largest Non-Governmental Development Organisation (NGO) in the world in terms of the scale and diversity of its interventions." 

"From the time of its modest inception in 1972, BRAC recognised women as the primary caregivers who would ensure the education of their children and the subsequent inter-generational sustainability of their families and households. Its comprehensive approach combines Microfinance under BRAC's Economic Development programme with Health, Education and other Social Development programmes, linking all the programmes strategically to counter poverty through livelihood generation and protection." 

Donors
"BRAC has two donor’s consorti: one for the BRAC Education Programme and one for the Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction Programme. These two programmes account for a large part of the total donor finance to BRAC. The consortia donors are: CIDA (Canada), Department for International Development (DFID), European Commission (EC), Netherlands Organisation for International Development (NOVIB), The Royal Netherlands Embassy, The Royal Norwegian Embassy and the World Food Programme (WFP).

"Other major donors include: AusAid (Australia), DANIDA (Denmark), SIDA (Sweden), The Government of Bangladesh, The Global Fund and UNDP." 

Governing Body
Source
 * Fazle Hasan Abed, (Chairperson) Chief Executive Officer
 * Taherunessa Abdullah
 * Shabana Azmi
 * Debapriya Bhattachariya
 * Timothy G. Evans
 * Kazi Aminul Huque
 * Syed Humayun Kabir
 * Ainun Nishat
 * Latifur Rahman
 * Rokia Afzal Rahman
 * Maria Otero

Contact
BRAC Centre 75 Mohakhali Dhaka 1212 Bangladesh Tel: (880-2) 9881265-72 Fax: (880-2) 8823542, 8823614 Web: http://www.brac.net

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Afsan Chowdhury is based in Dhaka, where he is Director, Advocacy and Human Rights