Bangladesh

BRAC was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 in the wake of a war that secured the nation’s independence. What started off as a small, short-term relief effort evolved into the world’s biggest international development organisation.

Bangladesh is one of the world’s youngest countries, home to over 170 million people, half of them under 26. The nation has made incredible social progress in the last few decades - shrinking poverty from 80% to 20%, increasing life expectancy from 50 to 72 years, and ensuring 98% of children now finish primary school. In parallel, it has also undergone massive economic transformation - from the world’s second poorest country to the world’s 35th fastest growing economy.

These development gains are threatened by new challenges. Bangladesh is the world’s seventh most climate-vulnerable country. It hosts more than a million Rohingya in the world’s largest refugee camp. Half of university graduates are unemployed. Extreme poverty persists, particularly in communities that are geographically or socially isolated.

As challenges continue to emerge, BRAC will continue to evolve, innovate and scale social approaches to tackling them. We are agnostic about what it takes to make positive change, a process that has led to creating a solutions ecosystem - that now includes the world's largest non-government community health force, the world’s largest microfinance network, the world’s largest legal aid network, some of the world’s largest social enterprises, a bank and a university.