With nearly 700 million people living in extreme poverty, the world needs solutions that can turn the tide. As BRAC’s late founder, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, used to say: “Small is beautiful, but scale is necessary.” Especially in the face of poverty.

In 52 years, with headquarters in Bangladesh, BRAC has established itself as a preeminent NGO — and the largest founded and led from the Global South. The organization serves more than 100 million people across Africa and Asia, with a focus on serving the most vulnerable, underserved families, and those who consistently bear the greatest burdens of exclusion and inequity.

BRAC's holistic approach encompasses diverse initiatives that move the needle because they are effective, self-sustaining, and build opportunities that last. Efforts range from youth empowerment and financial inclusion, to health care and education. From access to basic needs like clean water, nutritious food, and shelter, to helping communities adapt to climate shocks and humanitarian crises, BRAC gives families the tools, knowledge, market access, and hope to build resilient — and proven — pathways out of poverty.

Women and youth: Equity in focus

Data show that women disproportionately experience extreme poverty, with more than 380 million women and girls affected by it. But BRAC’s experience — currently in 17 countries — finds that women are the most impactful community changemakers. They are heads of households, microfinance groups leaders, and activists that BRAC mobilizes within communities. Indeed, women drive many BRAC initiatives forward—as educators, mentors, health workers, entrepreneurs, and community leaders. By investing in women's empowerment, BRAC not only breaks cycles of poverty, but also fosters intergenerational change and economic growth.

BRAC’s flagship AIM program, short for Mastercard Foundation Accelerating Impact for Young Women, leverages BRAC’s proven youth empowerment model to forge equity and enable girls and young women to reach their potential. Local AIM clubs serve as safe spaces for adolescent girls and young women in their communities. The women meet weekly with a peer mentor, who supports them as they socialize, learn life skills, and participate in age-appropriate education or financial literacy, business, and job skill training.

In 2023, the first year of the five-year program, BRAC launched more than 660 AIM clubs in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Uganda, serving more than 70,000 young people. In that time, more than 13,000 young women and girls set up 630 savings groups and collectively saved more than $230,000. What’s more, 26,000 young women became clients of BRAC’s microfinance programs and received financial literacy training. Within five years, AIM will reach more than 1.2 million adolescent girls and young women.

Evidence-based training and empowerment programs allow youth, especially young women, to tap into their energy and potential. BRAC’s youth empowerment approach has been rigorously tested and adapted. It has the potential to catalyze permanent change, and to turn the youth bulge in many low-income countries into an opportunity for transformation. Studies on BRAC’s programs demonstrate positive impacts on rates of self-employment and income generation while reducing teen pregnancy and early marriage.

Meanwhile, 98% of participants in BRAC’s signature Ultra-Poor Graduation program are women. The flagship approach leans on four pillars: meeting basic needs, income generation, social empowerment, and financial support and savings. Of those who begin the two-year program, 97% successfully graduate out of extreme poverty. This is apparent not just at the end of the program, but for years afterward: Graduates continue on an upward economic trajectory for 10+ years after the program’s end. For as little as $300, the program can lastingly lift a family of five out of extreme poverty. Since the program’s inception in 2002, BRAC has directly delivered skills, dignity, hope, and success to 2.2 million families in Bangladesh through Ultra-Poor Graduation, and the approach has been scaled and adapted to reach families across 14 countries through partnerships with governments and organizations.

Empowering communities, redefining development

BRAC's approach is rooted in the belief that the people closest to the world’s biggest challenges, like extreme poverty and inequality, possess the deepest insights to solve them. By empowering people with skills, knowledge, and hope, BRAC fosters their potential, as well as their agency and entrepreneurship.

BRAC has set a bold goal to reach 250 million individuals by 2030. Central to this mission is the empowerment of women, recognizing them as pivotal forces for societal change. By enhancing women's access to health care, education, financial tools, and livelihood opportunities, BRAC not only improves individual lives but catalyzes broader community development.

By reimagining development through empowerment and inclusivity, BRAC demonstrates that poverty and inequality are not inevitable — they are challenges that can be overcome through resilience, innovation, and collective action. As BRAC continues to expand its reach and impact, it exemplifies a new era of development: one that prioritizes dignity, agency, and the limitless potential of every individual.

Toward the end of Abed’s life, he wrote about the “science of hope.” In a 2018 piece for Reuters, he shared, “For too long, people thought poverty was something ordained by a higher power, as immutable as the sun and the moon. This is a myth. We would do well to start paying attention to the evidence, which says that giving people hope and self-esteem may be the greatest investment in human capital that any country can make.”

Get involved

Follow along as BRAC explores proven poverty solutions through our series, “Poverty is not destiny.” In the meantime, learn more about BRAC’s work and get involved at www.bracusa.org.