AGFUND HONORS( YUNIS) THE PIONEER OF BANKS for THE POOR

H.R.H. Prince Talal Bin Abdulaziz, President of the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND), will patronize the ceremony to be held on Wednesday evening on 5th September 2007 at the Riyadh Intercontinental Hotel, to honor Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Winner of the Noble Prize for Peace for 2006. Invitations to attend the ceremony were sent to many senior officials of the Government, leaders in development, representatives of United Nations and regional organizations, ambassadors of the Arab Group and the local, Arab and international media. Prof. Yunus is participating in the 10th Meeting of the AGFUND International Prize Committee, which will be held on Wednesday morning 5th September 2007 at the headquarters of AGFUND in Riyadh. Prince Talal was among those who voiced their opinion early on the deserving of Prof. Yunus to receive the Noble Prize for innovating the mechanism of micro credit through Grameen Bank, which directly and practically contributes to facing up to the problems and challenges the world is encountering in the field of sustainable human development. He also deserves the Prize on account of the efforts he has been exerting through his pioneering project, for combating poverty and mitigating its adverse effects on communities. When the Noble Prize Academy announced award of the Noble Prize for Peace to Prof. Yunus and Grameen Bank, Prince Talal was among the first of those offering their congratulations and emphasizing the importance of benefiting from the experience of Prof.Yunus in the service of developmental and humanitarian issues. The relationship of AGFUND with Prof. Yunus has grown up to the extent of partnership in the initiative launched by Prince Talal, which called for the establishment of banks of the poor in the Arab communities. It was within the context of this mutual relationship that Yunus’ participation in the board of directors of the first Arab bank for the poor came. This was the “National Bank for Financing Small Projects” in Jordan, which was inaugurated under the patronage of Queen Rania Al Abdullah and Prince Talal Bin Abdulaziz. The said Bank is being financed jointly by AGFUND and King Abullah II for Development and Jordan Private Sector. When Prince Talal called for establishing the Arab-African bank for micro credit during the proceedings of the Regional Conference on Micro Credit in the Middle East and Africa, Prof. Yunus lent his support to the project, and he is still lending this support. He supported the project by his thought and effort, with the aim of expanding the scope of benefits from micro credit to reduce poverty and put many people on the right track by making them productive workers in society.