Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes ProCon History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture Money Videos
The Battle Against Poverty
Table of Contents
Introduction References & Edit History
Discover
Los Angeles Police Department wanted flyer on Elizabeth Short, aka the "Black Dahlia," who was brutally murdered in January 1947. The FBI supported the Los Angeles Police Department in the case, including by identifying Short through her fingerprints that
America’s 5 Most Notorious Cold Cases (Including One You May Have Thought Was Already Solved)
Close up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society
12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”
Baseball laying in the grass. Homepage blog 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society, sports and games athletics
10 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time
Iraqi Army Soldiers from the 9th Mechanized Division learning to operate and maintain M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks at Besmaya Combat Training Center, Baghdad, Iraq, 2011. Military training. Iraq war. U.S. Army
8 Deadliest Wars of the 21st Century
Thumbnail for flags that look alike quiz Russia, Slovenia, Iceland, Norway
Flags That Look Alike
The Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (Alice in Wonderland)
11 Banned Books Through Time
Rural Irish landscape, Sligo, Ireland.
Why Is Ireland Two Countries?

The Battle Against Poverty

verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites
Written by
Muhammad Yunus
Economist and managing director of the Grameen Bank, a microlending institution he founded in 1976, and corecipient (with the bank) of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
Muhammad Yunus
Fact-checked by
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Article History

I want to see a world free from poverty. Poverty does not belong in a civilized human society. Its proper place is in a museum. The Grameen Bank and affiliated institutions are dedicated to providing opportunities that can help improve the socioeconomic condition of people who live in abject poverty. I believe that microcredit has a key role to play in reducing poverty. While access to credit for microenterprises is important by itself in improving the lives of the impoverished, it is complemented by other strategies.

For example, partnerships between microcredit programs and technology-oriented institutions will help reduce discrepancies in the opportunities available to the poor and the nonpoor. Information and communications technology is changing the world more rapidly and more fundamentally than any other technology in human history. I would like to see all information available to all people everywhere (including the poorest, the most ignorant, and the most powerless) at all times, almost cost-free. Why can’t we create a poverty-free world before the new century crosses the halfway mark?

Muhammad Yunus