The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Muhammad Yunus, is from Bangladesh and is the founder of Grameen Bank, the central developer of the micro-finance concept. Micro-finance has had, and is having, a major positive impact on economic development among many poor, and has helped lift millions of families around the world out of poverty. Dr. Yunus received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
The three zeros he discusses in the book are:
Zero poverty. He focuses here on tackling poverty, but also addressing the issue of income inequality. This issue is, of course, a difficult one in all societies, worldwide. The relative low-income inequality that can be found in the Nordic countries or Switzerland, for instance, as been attributed as a contributing factor to the economic success of these countries.
Zero unemployment. Here the book focuses on how to create jobs, how to get people involved in active work. There are lessons to be had here regarding potential dangers of allowing new technologies to become too effective in eliminating jobs. People should be employed, rather than being out of work (even if society might have offer financial support to facilitate the employment). In Switzerland, for instance, low-income persons are doing active work in cleaning up the environment and streets, and are receiving salaries for this, rather than passive financial compensation. Jobs are created also!
Zero net carbon. Here Dr. Yunus argues for the need to create a more sustainable eco-economic system, including by taxing pollution, creating carbon-trading systems, and providing economical support for technological advances that may curtail pollution, such as solar power or wind-mill generated electricity, electric cars, gas-driven turbines, buses and ships, etc.
The author goes further, however, by discussing three key factors that may help speeding up these transformations:
Youth. He stresses the importance of demographic profile (in contrast to what we find in countries such as Japan and in Western Europe, where lack of economic growth has been attributed to aging populations). Further, Dr. Yunus stresses that the younger generation must be energized and empowered.
Technology. Dr. Yunus points out that advances in technology might be a key factor to make life better for many. As an example, he points out mobile telephony, which has dramatically opened up for communication among many. But, as already discussed (under zero unemployment), technological advances can become a double-edged sword, when indiscriminately eliminating jobs.
Good governance. He points out that good governance is key, in society as well as for corporations. He raises the issue of corruption and how to ameliorate it. But, even more fundamentally, he raises the awareness about power imbalances, gender inequality and the strengthening the human rights for everybody.
In order to impact financial infrastructure and to influence world leaders to speed up key changes, Dr. Yunus calls for closer cooperation between the government and private sectors. He mentions companies such as Renault, Essilor and Danone as positive examples. Impact investing comes to mind!
How do we measure returns on philanthropy? A passage from Ray Dalio, the world’s leading hedge fund manager, comes to mind. Obviously most persons would want high philanthropic returns to achieve his/her goals (see Principles, p.115, also reviewed in Lorange Network). But what are philanthropic goals? Dalio stresses that all philanthropists’ goals tend to be different, i.e. functions of each such person’s objectives. So, there would be no right way to be a philanthropist, to give or to measure! But there would typically be many wrong ways! These comments are worth keeping in mind when reading Dr. Yunus book: Although he is convincing, what he proposes may certainly not represent the only way!
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