In over 35 years, since the halcyon days of the heroic war of liberation, Bangladesh has had little to celebrate. With the assassination of the Father of the Nation shortly after the independence of the country much of the spirit of liberation was gone; and with it were gone the hopes and aspirations of millions of Bangali women and men who sacrificed their lives so that others may live in a democratic and egalitarian Bangladesh.

The military, backed by a rapacious elite-all those who found it difficult to reconcile themselves to the ideologies of democracy, social justice, and secularism -banded together not only to kill democracy but also the ideals of liberation. If that indomitable spirit, the rugged commitment to social justice and human dignity, and the Bangali pride that inspired the independence struggle are still alive, much is owed to a band of indefatigable, selfless and imaginative visionaries-women and men-who kept faith with the people to serve them. Professor Muhammad Yunus is the foremost amongst them. No tribute paid to this noble of Bangali will ever adequately convey the gratitude not only of his country but of humanity at large. The Nobel committee in honoring Yunus has honored itself and celebrated the triumph of human endeavor.

The Nobel Peace citation sums up the philosophy that inspired Yunus: 'Every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life. Across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development'. The genius of Yunus lies not only in the simplicity of his philosophy but also in his humility to learn and practice the most important lesson of development: the people who are struggling with the problem are also usually best placed to find the solution. It takes humility to absorb this simple lesson and most of us are too vain to respect the poor, the destitute, and the so-called illiterate. Yunus had the humility, the imagination, and sagacity to understand the lessons which the poor women in his village were trying to teach him: we have life skills, we can make a livelihood but we are denied access to credit. Yunus listened and persevered. This is the lesson that we must learn as we celebrate Yunus.

The power of the idea and the magnitude of the impact of micro-credit are quite staggering. In the quarter of a century since the launch of Grameen Bank, micro-credit has become a near global movement. It is estimated that in excess of $20 billion is being disbursed to nearly 100 million households in over fifty countries. In 2000 the three largest micro-credit institutions in Bangladesh- the Grameen Bank, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and the Association for Social Advance-had between them 7.5 million members, were working in 72,000 villages (out of 86,000), cumulatively disbursed nearly $10 billion; and had loan recovery rates persistently in excess of 95%. In addition to these three big institutions, over a thousand NGOs are providing micro-credit in Bangladesh.

These are breathtaking numbers but they are only the tip of the iceberg and tell only a part of the story. Yunus is an intellectual iconoclast who has consistently challenged conventional wisdom. By de-linking formal literacy from life skills, Yunus taught us to respect the poor and enabled us to discover an asset in our teeming population. The poor were converted from mouths to feed into hands that create wealth and generate livelihood. He turned on its head the sacred banking principles that had kept the 'have' and 'have not' apart. He demonstrated that people without collateral, or education, or connections were better credit risks than their well-heeled and politically connected compatriots. The availability of affordable and reliable credit offers the best hope of breaking 'the vicious circle of economic, social and demographic structures that ultimately caused poverty'. Empirical evidence confirms that micro-credit in Bangladesh has had a positive impact on living standards and more importantly it has helped to reduce poverty. But despite the evidence that the poor are credit worthy, the commercial banks have sadly neither learned nor have they shown any social consciousness to mainstream micro-credit schemes.

The transformative powers of Yunus' ideas go much deeper. He has helped to empower the women and to give them back their dignity. The despair of the women was reflected in an essay by Maya Barolo, an undergraduate at Vassar: 'This exclusion of women in large numbers from effective participation in formal economic life is not only iniquitous and an insult to ethical values, but is also economically irrational and under-productive'. A young student has understood what many development experts have failed to grasp. The poor and so-called illiterate women have shown that it does not take a Harvard MBA to be a successful entrepreneur. And once they had access to affordable credit, they have not only demonstrated beyond any doubt that they are more credit worthy than the men; but they have also shown that when they generate incomes from their enterprise, the savings are put to far better use. Unlike many men (whose priorities are often centered on their own egos), the women micro-credit entrepreneurs invest their surplus on the health of the family, improving the homestead and educating the children. Each of these investments, in turn, ushers other far reaching multiplier effects. The ability to generate income has transformed women from being unpaid domestic and farm workers into person of status. They are able to make decisions; they are respected by their neighbors and their peers. As husbands recognize the loss of income that results from frequent pregnancies, women have gained greater control over their reproductive cycles. Income provides the means to educate children, especially daughters, and has resulted in delaying the marriage of the girls and a dramatic lowering of the fertility rate. Most importantly of all, as women feel empowered, they are able to slowly reclaim their dignity and unleash their fuller creativity.
Our pride in Yunus is heightened in our knowledge that Yunus joins the other Nobel Laureates of Bangla: Rabindranath Thakur, C.V. Raman, Mother Theresa and Amartya Sen. (Raman and Theresa came from outside but had made their home in Bengal). And no doubt like all his illustrious predecessors, Yunus will use his accolade to bring more power to his work and mission.

Yunus is not only a genius with transformative power and an outstanding entrepreneur but also a hard-nosed banker. He is a rare human cast in the best of the Gandhian mould, who irradiates warmth and optimism around him and leads through example. He is the CEO and Managing Director of one of the largest banks in the world, with 2,226 branches, a staff of 18,795 that has loaned $5.72 billion to 6.61 million borrowers (of which 97 percent are women) but has a life style not very different from many modest middle class people. In his office in Mirpur, he sits behind a plain desk and on a hard wooden chair with no cushions, and the room has no air-conditioner. And despite being perhaps the busiest man in the country, he is gracious, hospitable and generous to all his numerous visitors, bubbling with ideas and always full of good humor. Despite his many commitments, he remains committed to all good and civic causes, sits on numerous boards and committees and finds time to speak to students and NGOs; and in a society where arriving late to meetings and social gatherings is a symbol of status and power, Yunus is always the first to arrive. His humility has shaped his genius.

The world is celebrating with Bangladesh its pride in Yunus. We cannot be more proud. We salute you, Yunus bhai. You have given us back hope and optimism in our future. We are beholden to you.

Gowher Rizvi is director of the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance & Innovation and professor of public policy at Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.