BRAC (NGO)

BRAC, an international development organisation based in Bangladesh, is the largest non-governmental development organisation in the world, in terms of number of employees as of June 2015.^[3][4][5][6] Established by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 after the independence of Bangladesh, BRAC is present in all 64 districts of Bangladesh as well as other countries in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

BRAC employs over 100,000 people, roughly 70 percent of whom are women, reaching more than 126 million people^{[citation needed]}. The organisation is 70-80% self-funded through a number of commercial enterprises that include a dairy and food project and a chain of retail handicraft stores called Aarong. BRAC maintains offices in 14 countries throughout the world, including BRAC USA and BRAC UK.^{[citation needed]}

BRAC considers itself to have a unique philosophy towards eradicating poverty. As one author has said, "BRAC's idea was simple yet radical: bring together the poorest people in the poorest countries and teach them to read, think for themselves, pool their resources, and start their own businesses".^[7] Sir Fazle Hasan Abed strongly believed that poverty alleviation could be achieved only through an improvement to multiple issues plaguing a country, which explains the vast range of programmes that BRAC is involved in. Furthermore, his conviction that poverty amelioration could only be sustained through greater equality in gender roles led BRAC to heavily advocate women’s rights and the improvement of women's welfare.

In April 2009, Freedom from Want, a book that traces the evolution of BRAC by author Ian Smillie, was published byKumarian Press.