Warehouse Stock Clearance Sale

Grab a bargain today!


Freedom from Want
By

Rating

Product Description
Product Details

Table of Contents

1) Arms and the Man; 2) The Plan; 3) The Problem; 4) Learning and Unlearning; 5) Dulling the Edge of Husbandry?; 6) The Learning Organization; 7) The Chicken and Egg Problem; 8) A Simple Solution; 9) Of Pink Elephants and 9/11; 10) The Mulberry Bush; 11) Water and Milk; 12) Millennium Development Goal 6 (Target 8); 13) Educating Bangladesh; 14) Challenging the Frontiers; 15) A University; 16) On Being Ready; 17) The Democratic Deficit; 18) Afghanistan; 19) The Source of the Nile; 20) In Larger Freedom.

About the Author

Ian Smillie is an Ottawa-based development consultant and writer. He has lived and worked in Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Bangladesh. He was a founder of the Canadian development organization, Inter Pares, and was Executive Director of CUSO. In 2000 and 2001, Smillie served on a UN Security Council expert panel investigating the links between illicit weapons and the diamond trade in Sierra Leone. Today he serves as Research Coordinator on Partnership Africa Canada's 'Diamonds and Human Security Project' and is a participant in the intergovernmental 'Kimberley Process,' which is developing a global certification system for rough diamonds.

Reviews

"BRAC changed the lives of many people, not least those of its founders. It is these personal stories that make this book such a fulfilling read."

"BRAC s entrepreneurial approach to creating decent work for poor people is sorely needed in the world today. Smillie reveals BRAC s success in organizing the most vulnerable, particularly poor women, for their own self-empowerment, rights, protection, work and collective voice."

"Ian Smillie shows how BRAC has turned development orthodoxy on its head, challenging 40 years of conventional thinking about how to end poverty and, in the process, how it reached tens of millions of people with good education, better health and sustainable livelihoods."

"Ian Smillie's book is a celebration of hopefulness and success in the face of intracable difficulties. This book wonderfull exemplifies the theory of 'human agency, ' but does so without the cold abstractions of academic discourse. Rather, the 'will to power' is demonstrated over and over again through the lens of human activity, whether it be milk production, white leghorn-raising, worm-rearing or caterpillar-grazing on mulberry leaves. In all these activities designed to combat poverty, women are centre-stage, seizing each and every opportunity to escape the social structures imposed on their gender."

"In this beautifully written book, Smillie examines perhaps the most successful program in the world for empowering women and families and truly alleviating poverty in a sustainable way. The book confirmed my strong conviction, born of countless visits to remote villages and urban slums, that when ordinary people are given a chance, they seize it to change their lives, and extraordinary results follow. It should help convince those who still doubt that empowering people is key to successful economic, social and personal development."

"This is a great international story about what I consider the world's most successful and unusual non-governmental development organization, advancing the frontiers of health, education and microfinance, with a particular focus on women. It truly is an astounding record."

"This is a well-told account of an unlikely NGO leader who learns early on that development is a humbling business... "Freedom from Want" pays well-deserved tribute to an exemplar of indigenous development and its magnificent leader."

"We ve seen BRAC in action in Bangladesh and can attest that Smillie s book captures the magic of the organization and the transformation that happens person by person.

A gripping account of how the practical intellect of one person and the trail-blazing activities of an organization have been able to achieve something close to a miracle.

BRAC is the most astounding social enterprise in the world. This story combines the raw excitement of how a huge business can spring from one man's acumen with the emotive charge that comes when poverty and oppression are routed. Business can be exhilarating, and reading why can be a pleasure.

Ian Smillie insightfully chronicles the work of BRAC and its founder, Fazle Hasan Abed, whom I was proud to present with a Clinton Global Citizen Award. BRAC s enormous contributions to health, education, and economic development have improved the lives of over 100 million people across the globe. Dr. Abed s story proves just how much people with vision and commitment can change the world.

The billion dollars in micro loans that BRAC extends each year to poor people is just the beginning of the story of this remarkable organization. In 35 years BRAC has become the biggest development organization in the world, and it is also, arguably, one of the best.

This book has been crying out to be written. It is a powerful counterblast to cynics and pessimists. It challenges all of us working in development to raise our sights, aim high, and aspire to do the undoable.

This book is a must for anyone who thinks that foreign aid doesn t work, that ordinary people can t pull themselves out of poverty, or that sustainable development can t happen at a large scale. This is why I asked BRAC to come to Liberia at the Clinton Global Initiative. Its inspiring story gives us hope that Liberia can use citizen power to rebuild and transform the lives of the poorest to bring about health, wealth and greater well-being.

Ask a Question About this Product More...
 
Item ships from and is sold by Fishpond World Ltd.

Back to top