Bangladeshi microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their work in advancing economic and social opportunities for the poor that has helped millions lift themselves from crushing poverty. In awarding them the prize, the Nobel Committee said their work showed how working to eliminate poverty can result in a lasting peace. «Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty,» the committee said in its citation. «Microcredit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights.» The 65-year-old economist, dubbed the «banker of the poor,» and the bank he founded in 1976 will share the prize. They were cited for their efforts to help «create economic and social development from below» in their home country by using innovative economic programs such as microcredit lending. Grameen Bank has been instrumental in helping millions of poor Bangladeshis, many of them women, improve their standard of living by letting them borrow small sums to start businesses. Loans go toward buying items such as cows to start a dairy, chickens for an egg business, or mobile phones to start businesses where villagers who have no access to phones pay a small fee to make calls. «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,» the Nobel Committee said in its citation. Reached by the Nobel foundation, Yunus was excited about winning the prize. «I'm absolutely delighted. I cannot believe that it has really happened,» he said by telephone. «Everyone was telling me that I would get the prize but it came as a surprise. It is fantastic news for the people that have supported us.» Grameen Bank claims to have 6.6 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom are women, and provides services in more than 70,000 villages in Bangladesh. Yunus has drawn praise for developing and advancing microcredit, not just in Bangladesh, but across Asia, Africa and into the Middle East, which has been credited with helping poor women to advance their lives and pull them out of poverty. Microcredit is the extension of unusually small loans, typically US$50 to US$100 (¤40 to ¤80), to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. Though the sums are tiny by Western comparisons, the amounts are vital to those who borrow. Last year, the United Nations said that women, in particular, were the major benefactors of microcredit. More than 92 million families benefited from microcredit in 2005, up from 13.5 million families in 1997, according to a report released by the Microcredit Summit Campaign. The campaign was launched 10 years ago by United Nations delegates from 137 countries. It aims to extend microcredit to 100 million of the world's poorest families. Last year, the U.N. even designated 2005 as the International Year of Microcredit, the Associated Press reported.
