Who We Are : Evolution

1972

• The Organisation then known as Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee
• (BRAC) begins relief and rehabilitation operations in Sulla, Sylhet, following the end of Bangladesh’s War of Liberation.

1973

• Activities transform from relief and rehabilitation to long term community development
• BRAC is renamed Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee

1974

• Relief work is started among famine and flood victims of Roumari, Kurigram
• BRAC begins microfinance activities

1975

• BRAC’s Research and Evaluation Division is established to support its core activitie
• The Jamalpur Women's Project commences

1976

• The Manikganj Integrated Project is initiated
• BRAC’s Agriculture and Fisheries Programmes are established

1977

• Targeted Development Approach commences through the formation of Village Organisations
• BRAC’s Community Empowerment (CEP) Programme is launched

1978

• Emphasis is placed on staff training and the first Learning Centre (BLC) is established in Savar
• The Sericulture Programme is started to generate employment for poor women in Manikganj and a handicraft marketing outlet, Aarong, is set up

1979

• The Rural Outreach Programme is initiated
• The Rural Credit and Training Programme is launched

1980

• The Oral Therapy Extension Programme is launched to combat diarrhoea

1983

• The Poultry Vaccination Programme is initiated

1985

• BRAC's Non Formal Primary Education Programme (NFPE) is started
• The Livestock Programme is initiated
• The Rural Enterprise Project is launched
• The Income Generation for Vulnerable Group Development (IGVGD) programme is launched

1986

• The Rural Development Programme is formed by merging the Rural Credit and Training Programme and the Outreach Programme
• The Child Survival Programme commences
• The Human Rights and Legal Aid Services programme is introduced

1988

• BRAC's Monitoring department is set up

1990

• Phase II of the Rural Development Programme commences
• The Sustainable Rural Credit Programme is initiated
• A Management Development Programme is set up

1991

• The Women's Health Development Programme commences
• A Women's Advisory Committee is set up

1992

• A Centre for Development Management (CDM) is established

1993

• Phase 3 of the Rural Development Programme commences.
• Adolescent Reading Centres are opened

1994

• BRAC’s Non Formal Primary Education Programme is replicated in Africa

1995

• BRAC Adult Literacy Centres are opened
• A Gender Quality Action Learning (GQAL) and a Gender Resource Centre (GRC) are set up
• The Continuing Education (CE) programme is started.
• BRAC Health Centres (Shushasthyas) are established

1996

• Phase IV of the Rural Development Programme commences
• The Micro Enterprise Lending and Assistance (MELA) programme is launched

1997

• Development programme started in urban areas
• BRAC’s Gender Policy is launched.

1998

• BRAC Legal Aid Clinics are established
• The BRAC Dairy and Food Project is commissioned
• BRAC's Chittagong Hill Tracts Development programme is started

1999

• The BRAC Information Technology Institute is launched
• The Adolescent Peer Organised Network (APON) courses are created

2000

• BRAC's Limb and Brace Fitting Centre is established

2001

• BRAC University is established
• BRAC Bank Ltd. is launched
• The Post Primary Basic Education (PBEn) programme is set up
• The Adolescent Development Programme (ADP) is initiated

2002

• The Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction: Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR-TUP) programme is launched
• BRAC commences development work in Afghanistan
• BRAC Advocacy and Human Rights Unit is set up

2003

• BRAC Tea Estates is established
• The Continuing Education and Post Primary Basic Education programmes are integrated into a single programme called the Post Primary Basic and Continuing Education (PACE) programme
• The Employment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) programme is launched
• BRAC's TB programme coverage is expanded nationally

2004

• An Office of the Ombudsperson is established
• A microfinance programme for commercial sex workers is initiated
• BRAC University establishes the James P. Grant School of Public Health and the Institute of Educational Development

2005

• The Centre for Governance Studies is established by BRAC University
• BRAC commences programmes in Sri Lanka following the Asian Tsunami
• Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH) programme launched in Nilphamari

2006

• Development programmes in Tanzania and Uganda commence
• BRAC establishes BRAC UK and BRAC USA as resource mobilisationorganisations
• Phase I of the Targeting the Ultra Poor (TUP) programme is completed
• Replication of TUP programme in Haiti and India is started
• The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme is launched
• A pilot project to distribute reading glasses is started
• The Leadership for Advancing Development (LeAD) programme is launched

2007

• BRAC registers in Pakistan as an NGO and begins programmes.
• BRAC started providing technical assistance to an NGO in Indonesia for post-Tsunami rehabilitation and microfinance.

2008

• BRAC Education Programme initiates pilot programme for capacity building of Government and registered non-government primary schools in 20 sub-districts
• BRAC registers in Sierra Leone and Liberia
• BRAC Africa Loan Fund is created to provide local currency debt financing to BRAC’s microfinance programmes in Tanzania, Uganda and Southern Sudan

2009

• BRAC continue supporting the long-term rehabilitation of the cyclone Aila victims.
• A foundation called Stichting BRAC International formed at the Hague, the Netherlands.
• BRAC launched a groundbreaking credit scheme for sharecroppers.
• BRAC developed Alive and Thrive programme to increase exclusive breastfeeding.

2010

• BRAC Chairperson knighted at Buckingham Palace in London
• BRAC sets up community radio station in Bangladesh
• Exploring further opportunities to contribute to rehabilitation and development work in Haiti
• Completed a rebranding process
• Established an in house legal counsel
• BRAC launches new website

2011

• Sir Fazle Hasan Abed receives WISE Prize for outstanding achievement in the education sector
• Launched boat-schools to provide the children living in remote and/or waterlogged areas
• Designed  Model Disaster Resilient Habitat (DRH) in the southern part of Bangladesh
• Launched iCRESS, a technological intervention for better delivery of human rights services

2012

• Expanded to Philippines with education programme
• Launched a driving school under Road Safety Programme
• Signed strategic partnership with AusAid and DFID

Innovations over the Decades

1970s
Functional education - Life skills development education for adults that helps to build solidarity, create a savings mentality and prepare people for new income generation

Village Organisations (VO)s - The most effective medium for catalysing change in disadvantaged communities

Para-professionals - Pioneering models for vaccinators, community health workers and ‘barefoot lawyers’ that provide incentive based jobs for those ready to serve their own communities

1980s
Homemade Oral Rehydration Solution Campaign - A groundbreaking campaign in which 13 million households in Bangladesh learned how to make oral saline at home – a lesson that continues to save millions of lives from diarrhoea

Incentive Salary System – A result oriented incentive package that measures effectiveness of and compensates our community workers and volunteers accordingly

Education for dropouts and non entrants - Our own primary schools that help disadvantaged children make successful transitions to formal schools

Enterprises for value chain support - An integrated network of our development programmes, enterprises and investments that result in a unique synergy that supports our holistic approach for alleviating poverty

Directly observed treatment (DOT) for TB control - An effective treatment method for tuberculosis, a result of our incentive based salary system for community health workers, ensuring patients’ daily intake of medicine for six months or more

Credit ++ approach - An integrated set of services for the landless poor, marginal farmers and small entrepreneurs working together to strengthen the supply chain of the enterprises in which our microfinance borrowers invest

1990s
Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents – A range of initiatives to empower adolescents, including skills training, social development and micro-loans for their future business

Adolescent Clubs – Safe spaces where peer-driven intervention for adolescents enhance their personal growth and social skills

Pre primary schools - Our own pre primary schools where we prepare underprivileged children to enter mainstream primary schools

Hybrid maize - A pioneer venture to commercialise corn harvesting, which plays a key role in making farmers shift from traditional single cropping to multiple cropping to maximise land usage during idle seasons

Popular theatre - A traditional platform became an effective communication medium to advocate for social changes in rural communities, particularly to the illiterate

Artificial inseminators - We transformed over 2,000 rural poor into entrepreneurs with an innovative livelihood opportunity: providing fee based ‘door to door’ artificial insemination and education services for livestock farmers

2000s
Sharecroppers’ scheme – A phenomenal initiative to offer soft loans for tenant farmers (sharecroppers) with a specially tailored recovery plan

Challenging the frontiers of poverty reduction – A unique model focusing on extremely deprived women to improve their economic and social situations, allowing ultra poor households to graduate from extreme poverty and enter mainstream development programmes

Birthing huts – Safe and culturally accepted childbirth places with appropriate services for mothers in urban slums

M-health services - A mobile based platform that community health workers use to collect data and provide a range of real time automated services such as storing patient records, categorising and assessing medical risks, prioritising medical responses and monitoring referrals

Unique management Model - A unique management model that focuses on internal control without suffocating creativity, runs our large scale interventions cost effectively, and enables us to constantly learn from the communities we serve across the world