Economic Development Social innovations that improve the living standards of the poor

Maria Eitel - Nike’s Efforts to Empower Young Girls

Nike has taken pains to clean up its act since the media brought public attention to human rights violations in its supplier factories in the 1990s. Through the Nike Foundation, the sports and fitness giant is taking a proactive approach to some of the world's most challenging social problems. In this audio lecture, Nike Foundation president Maria Eitel talks to a Stanford MBA audience about how the organization is focusing on creating economic opportunities for adolescent girls around the world as a means of alleviating poverty.

Fazle H. Abed - Achieving the Millennium Development Goals

Fazle Abed explains in this audio lecture how the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) is leading grassroots efforts to achieve the eight U.N. Millennium Development Goals in Bangladesh. He describes a multipronged strategy aimed at education, gender equality, health, environmental, economic, and political progress.

Fazle H. Abed - Thinking Big and Scaling Up

Solving the world's big problems takes large-scale solutions, says Fazle H. Abed, founder of Building Resources Across Communities in Bangladesh. In this audio lecture, Abed outlines the development and market perspectives that have enabled his organization to expand and meet his country's needs in key areas, including microfinance, agriculture, and education.

Dr Muhammad Yunus - Reaching the Full Potential of Microfinance

Microfinance, the extension of small loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans, has proved to be an effective strategy for raising millions of families from poverty worldwide. Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered the microloan revolution in Bangladesh, explains in this audio lecture how he saw rural poor and women struggle against deeply institutionalized economic systems, and realized the massive change that small loans could provide.