Chapter 9, Application in Other Poor Countries Summary and Analysis

"Our success in Bangladesh led me to hope that our micro-credit methodology could have near-universal applicability. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, we proved that the Grameen idea could improve the lives of poor people throughout the world. Pilot projects in Malaysia and the Philippines led the way," (Chapter 9, p. 155).

Yunus meets the Canadian Professor David Gibbons at a conference in Dhaka in 1985. He asks if he and associate Sukor Kasim can spend a month working at a Grameen branch to learn the methodology. Yunus authorizes it since Gibbons is teaching in Malaysia and advocating micro-credit programs to help the Malay population. The two plan to establish a Grameen program in Malaysia and Yunus supports their plans. The program is called Project Ikhtiar and it begins in 1987. The program is...