Topic: Muhammad Yunus

Difference Maker US college student Surya Karki builds schools back home in Nepal

Maya Universe Academy was born in 2011 out of the creative altruism of Karki and six other young people from all over the world.

Change Agent If sci-fi spurs technology, can 'social fiction' spark change?

If more movies, TV series, and other media were created to help people envision better future societies, 'I bet we’ll create the societies,' says Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize-winning founder of the microcredit movement.

Bangladesh factory collapse death toll passes 1,000

By Friday, May 10, the death toll from the Bangladesh factory collapse had reached 1,021, and more bodies are still being found. A fire at a nearby sweater factory highlighted that safety conditions in Bangladesh factories have not been improved in the two weeks since the factory collapse.

Change Agent World Bank unit, MasterCard Foundation boost small loans in Africa

They'll spend $37.4 million over five years to provide microfinancing, which helps people lift themselves out of poverty by starting or expanding small businesses, sending children to school, or improving farms.

Opinion Selling organs to pay off debt: Microfinance needs reforms

Governments and microfinance institutions must continue taking steps to reform the industry and provide the impoverished with a variety of financial services, including savings options and grants, which better meet their needs.

Change Agent Opportunity Fund helps opportunity knock for low-income borrowers

Micro-lending to the poor in the US is quietly growing. But the Opportunity Fund finds that helping people learn how to save is important too.
06/16/2011 04:02 pm

Change Agent The bad – and good – news on microcredit

Making tiny loans to the poor may not create successful new businesses as often as once hoped. But it provides an unexpected benefit by supplying cash for other crucial needs such as schooling, health care – even food.
06/09/2011 03:15 pm

Global Viewpoint Micro-lending genius Yunus: Why he was done wrong

The Bangladeshi government's treatment of Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who has lifted millions out of poverty with his micro-lending program, is shameful. And it does nothing to help the poor.
04/08/2011 11:58 am

Photos of the Day Photos of the day 04/05

Photos of the Day Photos of the day 03/08

Horizons Mark Zuckerberg Facebook account hacked

The Mark Zuckerberg Facebook fan page was hacked this week. So who is the mysterious prankster that managed to steal Mark Zuckerberg's identity?
01/26/2011 02:57 pm

Ideas for a better world in 2011

In many ways, 2010 is a year you may want to relegate to the filing cabinet quickly. It began with a massive earthquake in Haiti and wound down with North Korea once again being an enfant terrible – bizarrely trying to conduct diplomacy through brinkmanship. In between came Toyota recalls and egg scares, pat downs at airports and unyielding unemployment numbers, too little money in the Irish treasury and too many bedbugs in American sheets. Oil gushed from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico for three months, mocking the best intentions of man and technology to stop it, while ash from a volcano in Iceland darkened Europe temporarily as much as its balance sheets. Yet not all was gloomy. The winter Olympics in Canada and the World Cup in South Africa dazzled with their displays of athletic prowess and national pride, becoming hearths around which the world gathered. In Switzerland, the world's largest atom smasher hurled two protons into each other at unfathomable speeds. Then came the year's most poignant moment – the heroic and improbable rescue of 33 miners from the clutches of the Chilean earth. There were many transitions, too – the return of the Republicans in Washington and the Tories in Britain, the scaling back of one war (Iraq) and the escalation of another (Afghanistan), the fall of some powers (Greece) and rise of others (China, Germany, Lady Gaga). To get the new year off to the right start, we decided to ask various thinkers for one idea each to make the world a better place in 2011. We plumbed poets and political figures, physicists and financiers, theologians and novelists. Some of the ideas are provocative, others quixotic. Some you will agree with, others you won't. But in the modest quest to stir a discussion – from academic salons to living rooms to government corridors – we offer these 25 ideas.
12/26/2010 12:56 pm

Opinion A game changer for US-Pakistan relations

As officials from both countries meet for a high-level strategic dialogue this week, both Washington and Islamabad are frustrated. But a commitment to a long-term alliance is essential. And it can work, if both sides focus on three priorities.
10/18/2010 02:19 pm

Who were the previous 10 Nobel Peace Prize winners?

Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for his long and nonviolent struggle for human rights in his country. Here is a list of the past 10 Nobel Peace Prize winners and why the committee chose them.
10/08/2010 01:08 pm

Test your Nobel Peace Prize knowledge. Take our quiz.

Liu Xiaobo, a pro-democracy activist, won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for his decades of non-violent struggle for human rights in China. Beijing was not impressed. Mr. Liu is currently in a Chinese prison serving out an 11-year sentence as the lead author of Chapter 08, a manifesto calling for free speech and multi-party elections. The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the richest and most prestigious awards in the world. The prize includes a $1.5 million award. But how much do you really know about the Nobel Peace Prize? Take our 15-question quiz.
10/08/2010 09:53 am

Africa Monitor At UN, elites mull Millennium Development Goals. Did the poor weigh in?

Talk of the Millennium Development Goals at the UN General Assembly this week’s brought home one very clear fact: Western thinking about development is elite-driven.
09/23/2010 12:27 pm

In India, warnings of a microfinance bubble

Lending to the poor has proved so profitable in India that microfinance institutions saw their loan portfolio jump from $252 million to $2.5 billion in two years, raising fears of a subprime-like microfinance bubble.
06/30/2010 03:02 pm

Difference Maker Extreme do-gooders – what makes them tick?

Five extraordinary social entrepreneurs talk about their defining moments - when the urge to change the world gathered such force they couldn't ignore it.
09/07/2009 01:00 am

Banker to the Poor

06/28/2009 01:00 am

Microfinance can mean a lot to the environment

Earthtalk: Little payments can jump-start a business and lead to greener communities.
02/20/2009 12:00 am

Charities borrow for-profit strategies to do good

Hybrid businesses enlist nonprofit strategies as well to achieve selfless goals.
01/05/2009 12:00 am

Afghanistan: Soviet failures echo for US

Control of roads and rural areas vexes coalition effort.
12/19/2008 12:00 am

Letters to the Editor

Readers write about the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran and morality in capitalism.
02/22/2008 12:00 am

In Pakistani election, a big swing vote

In Punjab, which picks 148 of 272 parliamentary seats on Feb. 18, many remain undecided.
02/15/2008 12:00 am

Opinion How social business can create a world without poverty

We need 'social business' to couple the human heart to the capitalist system.
02/15/2008 12:00 am