Former US President Bill Clinton announced BRAC’s US$250 million commitment on Africa at the Opening Plenary session of the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting held yesterday, September 20th, 2006 in New York City. Clinton presented BRAC’s Founder and Chairperson, Fazle Hasan Abed with a signed Commitment Certificate at the event.

Clinton, who had, in his only visit to Bangladesh, met with students from BRAC Primary Schools, remarked that he would now be able to visit BRAC Schools not only in Bangladesh, but all over the world.

US First Lady Laura Bush also spoke at the Opening Plenary. Panelists at the session included EU Council Secretary General Javier Solana, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez.

BRAC’s Commitment is part of the organisation’s on-going expansion of development activities into Africa. BRAC has already begun operations in Tanzania and Uganda and plans to extend its interventions to Kenya, Malawi and Southern Sudan in the near future.

BRAC will introduce its unique, integrated approach to poverty reduction in these countries by incorporating education, agriculture, and health components with micro-finance schemes, totaling investments of $25 million a year for ten years.

Since its inception in 1972 as a relief and rehabilitation organization, BRAC has transformed into the world’s largest development NGO, its comprehensive interventions touching the lives of over 150 million people in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

© 2005 BRAC Bangladesh
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