Abed honoured with World Food Prize

A man who created a non-profit organisation credited with helping more than 150 million people out of poverty has been named the winner of the 2015 World Food Prize.

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed created Brac, the organisation originally known as Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, as a temporary relief organisation to help the country recover from the 1970 typhoon that killed about 500,000 people and the subsequent war fought in 1971 to win independence from Pakistan.

Brac has grown into one of the world's largest nongovernmental organisations focused on alleviating poverty -- estimated to have helped more than 150 million people out of poverty in Africa and Asia and is expanding efforts to 10 additional countries.

US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the prize on Wednesday at the State Department in Washington, according to AP.

“Being selected to receive the World Food Prize is a great honour. I thank the World Food Prize Foundation for its recognition of the work of Brac, which I have had the privilege to lead over the last 43 years,” Sir Abed said in a statement.

“The real heroes in our story are the poor themselves and, in particular, women struggling with poverty. In situations of extreme poverty, it is usually the women in the family who have to make do with scarce resources. When we saw this at Brac, we realised that women needed to be the agents of change in our development effort.”

The World Food Prize was created by Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug in 1986 to recognise scientists and others who have improved the quality and availability of food. The foundation that awards the $250,000 prize is based in Des Moines, Iowa.

World Food Prize President Kenneth Quinn said the ability of Abed, who was knighted in London in February 2010, to successfully transition Brac into a global relief organisation was key to his win.

"What distinguishes him is the incredibly difficult environment in which he has built now the largest, and some would say, the most effective and far reaching non-profit organisation anywhere in the world with more than 100,000 employees," Quinn said. "It's his emphasis on reaching to the very poor those who have great food insecurity and who face the most difficult path out of poverty."

The initial focus of Brac was on alleviating high child and infant mortality rates by providing social services including healthcare, AP quoted Abed as saying.

He also saw the need to empower women and get them to see they could also contribute to the national economy, so he helped teach them to farm efficiently and grow surplus crops to sell.

"Sir Fazle's and his organisation's recognition that engaging women in STEAM fields -- science, technology, engineering, agriculture, and math -- benefits our local and global communities is a vision that we share at United States Department of Agriculture," Vilsack said.

Brac estimates more than a billion people live at a poverty level of less than $1.25 a day but hundreds of millions of others live on less than half that amount and are considered in extreme poverty.

The organisation also has created a pilot programme that helps those in extreme poverty work their way out; it'll be used in eight other countries to see if results can be replicated.

Participants receive a weekly stipend so they have enough money to eliminate the need to beg or work at menial labour to survive. A savings account and financial literacy training help teach them to manage money, and a one-time grant provides a productive asset -- such as a cow, goats or chickens -- as a means to work toward self-sufficiency.

The United Nations Development Programme reports Bangladesh has reduced poverty from 56.7 percent in 1991-1992 to 31.5 percent in 2010, the latest year data available.

Abed will receive the World Food Prize at a ceremony in October at Des Moines.