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BRAC founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed honored with the Independence Award

On 25 March 2025, the Government of Bangladesh posthumously awarded the prestigious Independence Award to Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder of BRAC, in recognition of his lifelong commitment to social development and nation building.

Date: 27 Mar 2025

Reading time: 2 minutes

Author: BRAC

On 25 March 2025, the Government of Bangladesh posthumously awarded the prestigious Independence Award to Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder of BRAC, in recognition of his lifelong commitment to social development and nation building. 

Received by Shameran Abed, the Executive Director of BRAC International, this award is the highest civilian honour in the country recognising those who have had outstanding contributions at the national level.

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed dedicated his life to the eradication of poverty. Deeply impacted by the human suffering in the aftermath of the Bhola Cyclone and the [Bangladesh] Liberation War of 1971, he left a comfortable life behind to work for and with people in poverty and marginalised conditions.

A visionary, who in the the Nobel Prize winning economist and philosopher Amartya Sen’s words, had the astonishing ability to combine “clear-headed thinking with sure-footed execution”— his work touched the lives of more than a 100 million people living in poverty in close to five decades of service.

BRAC’s guiding philosophies are adapted from his own. Sir Fazle Hasan Abed believed that poverty is interconnected and multidimensional, and it can only be tackled through working side by side with those at the forefront of these challenges. He believed that discrimination against women was society’s greatest social injustice. To him, women’s empowerment was not only a prerequisite for building a more equitable society but also one of the most crucial keys to eradicating poverty.

At the heart of all his work was an unwavering belief in the potential and strength of every individual, and the conviction that people living in poverty can advance on their own if given the right opportunities.

Under his leadership, BRAC expanded from a focus on relief and rehabilitation in its early days to more holistic and integrated programming that addresses the multi-dimensional nature of poverty. As a result, his work spanned all aspects and sectors of development, from health and education to microfinance and social enterprises, linking multiple solutions together to strengthen entire ecosystems. Women remain at the centre of all of these approaches.

He was relentless in his pursuit of simple, cost-effective solutions that could be scaled to impact the lives of not hundreds or thousands, but millions. Today, BRAC stands as the largest NGO in the world, and operates in 13 countries across Asia and Africa. 

“This award reminds us that the dream he envisioned — of a just, equitable, and prosperous Bangladesh — is our responsibility to fulfill. May his work and achievements continue to inspire us.”, Shameran Abed said in his closing statement in the acceptance speech. The award will reinforce our commitment to supporting those in greatest need.