Fazle Hasan Abed dedicates food prize to women fighting against poverty

World Food Prize Foundation Chairman John Ruan III handed him the prize on Friday in Iowa, USA, a BRAC media statement said. It announced the award last July. The World Food Prize recognises achievements of individuals who have made vital contribution to human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.  Dr Norman Borlaug, who won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize, founded it in 1986.

The citation for the prize said Abed was receiving the award for “his unparalleled achievement in building a unique, integrated development organisation that many have hailed as the most effective anti-poverty organisation in the world”. After receiving the award, he said he was not the only recipient of it. “The poor are the real heroes behind the success, particularly the women fighting against poverty,” he was quoted as saying in the BRAC statement.

Abed established BRAC in 1972 to help the people. Currently operating in 11 countries in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, the NGO has raised “at least 150 million people out of poverty”, according to the US State Department.