History of BRAC USA

Currently, BRAC is registered in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Tanzania, Uganda and Southern Sudan. The goal of BRAC’s global expansion is to create a network of institutions with shared values, vision and a history of success. By bringing together knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurship, we believe we can build scalable, sustainable solutions to marginalization, poverty, disease, illiteracy, and environmental degradation.

When BRAC’s Founder and Chairman, Fazle H. Abed studied the structure, source of funding and impact of the top ten humanitarian and development organizations by income, staff and impact, BRAC was by far the largest organization by number of staff but smallest by country presence. Abed became convinced that BRAC could and should contribute to the global efforts to alleviate poverty and empower the power in desperate areas of the developing world. Further, Abed believes that BRAC must help define South-South cooperation in a way that explicitly builds on Northern roles for support and solidarity but reverses some of the less effective power dynamics of the past.

In early 2006, BRAC UK was created to provide services to the immigrant community and to help mobilize resources for BRAC’s global expansion. In September 2006, Fazle Abed and Allan Rosenfield, Dean of the Columbia School of Public Health, convened a group of friends of BRAC – experts in health, education, microfinance and development – to discuss the feasibility and appropriateness of initiating a foundation in the United States to support BRAC’s expansion. Based on an enthusiastic and positive response, BRAC USA was registered as a non-profit foundation in New York State October 23, 2006 and held its first board meeting in November 2006. BRAC USA received its 501(c)(3) status on July 12, 2007.

Dr. Allan Rosenfield is the founding Chairperson of BRAC USA and Susan Davis is its first President & CEO. Other founding Board members include Kamal Ahmed, Dr. Richard Cash, Dr. Lincoln Chen, Ron Grzywinski, Diana Taylor and Elaine Wolfensohn. 

BRAC USA’s first support came from BRAC founder Fazle Abed who donated funds from the prestigious Henry Kravis Leadership Prize which he received in March 2007. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the NoVo Foundation have subsequently committed to support the start-up of BRAC USA.
 

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History of BRAC

“BRAC has done what few others have – they have achieved success on a massive scale, bringing life-saving health programs to millions of the world’s poorest people.”
– Bill Gates

The organization was founded in 1972 as the Bangladesh Relief Assistance Committee in response to the humanitarian needs of thousands of refugees returning to their homes after Bangladesh’s War of Independence. After initially establishing activities in relief and rehabilitation operations, BRAC shifted its focus in 1973 from relief to long-term community development, and was renamed the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, or BRAC, as it is now known today.

Today BRAC has become one of the largest private, non-profit organizations in the world. Led by its visionary social entrepreneur Fazle Hasan Abed, BRAC is widely recognized as remarkably successful in many development circles and has been the recipient of numerous prizes. Over three decades, thousands of people have come to Bangladesh to experience BRAC firsthand and learn about its unique, integrated approach to alleviating poverty. By welcoming visitors, hosting interns, offering international training programs and research publications, BRAC has shared its knowledge with development practitioners and policymakers around the world.

In May 2002, after thirty years of focused work in Bangladesh guided by a vision of “a just, enlightened, healthy and democratic Bangladesh free from hunger, poverty, environmental degradation and all forms of exploitation based on age, sex, religion and ethnicity”, BRAC was invited by the government of Afghanistan to help rebuild its country. BRAC’s experience of rebuilding in the wake of devastation, as a result of the Liberation War in Bangladesh, lent to its success in contributing to Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development. BRAC Afghanistan is now the largest microfinance provider in the country and has established health, education, income generation and small enterprise development programs.

After the tsunami of 2004, BRAC, with its experience in post conflict natural disaster relief and rehabilitation activities in Bangladesh and Afghanistan, responded to the humanitarian crisis by working with local nonprofit organizations to set up microfinance operations in Sri Lanka. At the same time, Fazle H. Abed began participating in a global network of the largest international humanitarian and development organizations. Of these organizations, all but BRAC were started and led by the North.

Emboldened by its achievements in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka and encouraged by the international donor community, BRAC decided to scale its model globally. In June 2006, BRAC established basic programs in Tanzania and Uganda, and in May 2007 it established its microfinance program in Southern Sudan.

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