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Glasgow Caledonian University will host Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus on a day long visit to Glasgow on December 1. In his only Scottish visit this year, Professor Yunus will meet with a group of Glasgow Caledonian students before the first meeting of the university’s Magnus Magnusson Fellowship and delivering the inaugural Magnus Magnusson Lecture to a high profile audience in Glasgow Caledonian’s Saltire Centre. The Magnus Magnusson fellowship is a prestigious, but informal group of international thought leaders who represent a wide range of backgrounds and interests and who will meet annually to debate and agree action on issues of major concern to society. Chaired by Glasgow Caledonian University Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Pamela Gillies, the members of the Magnus Magnusson fellowship include businessman and philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter; Palestinian lawyer, writer and human rights activist Raja Shehadeh; Dr Will Storrar, Director of the Centre for Theological Enquiry, Princeton; and journalist and politician Lord Gus Macdonald of Tradeston, who is also the university’s Chancellor. The title of the inaugural Magnus Magnusson lecture, which will be introduced by Sally Magnusson, Honorary President of the Magnus Magnusson Fellowship, will be 'Alleviating Poverty: Microcredit and Social Business'. The anti-poverty campaigner will also receive an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the university. Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank and dubbed "Banker to the Poor", is recognised as one of the world’s greatest social entrepreneurs. He was awarded a Nobel Peace prize in 2006 for his efforts to create a world free of poverty by developing the concept of micro-credit, which supports entrepreneurs who are too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. By providing small loans on suitable terms Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that with the right support even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own social and economic advancement. Since it was set up in Bangladesh three decades ago, Grameen Bank has been replicated across the world, changing the lives of over 100 million families. In February 2008, Grameen Bank opened a branch in New York City, its first in a developed country. The bank plans to provide $176 million in loans over the next five years, targeting the 28 million Americans who have no bank accounts and another 44.7 million who have limited access to financial institutions. Professor Yunus will use the visit to tell of his quest to harness free market power to solve the problems of poverty, hunger and inequality across the world, suggesting if the dynamics of capitalism and social enterprise could be applied properly, poverty could be better tackled by the people experiencing it. Glasgow Caledonian University's inaugural Magnus Magnusson Lecture will take place from 2.00 p.m. in the Saltire Centre on the afternoon of Monday, December 1, 2008. |
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