Hope Over Fate

This is the story of a mild-mannered accountant, Fazle Hasan Abed (1936-2019), whose life had a profound impact on millions. A former finance executive with almost no experience in relief aid, he founded BRAC in 1972. BRAC went on to become the world’s largest nongovernmental organization, and Abed’s methods changed the way global policymakers think about poverty. His story has never been told until now.

Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times called him “one of the unsung heroes of modern times.” Fazle Hasan Abed was a mild-mannered accountant who may be the most influential man most people have never even heard of. As the founder of BRAC, his work had a profound impact on the lives of millions. A former finance executive with almost no experience in relief aid, he founded BRAC, originally the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee, in 1972, aiming to help a few thousand war refugees. A half century later, BRAC is by many measures the largest nongovernmental organization in the world—and by many accounts, the most effective anti-poverty program ever.

BRAC seems to stand apart from countless failed development ventures. Its scale is massive, with 100,000 employees reaching more than 100 million people in Asia and Africa. In Bangladesh, where it began, Abed’s work gave rise to “some of the biggest gains in the basic condition of people’s lives ever seen anywhere,” according to The Economist. His methods changed the way global policymakers think about poverty. By the time of his death at eighty-three in December 2019, he was revered in international development circles. Yet among the wider public he remained largely unknown. His story has never been told—until now.

Abed avoided the limelight. He thought his own story was of little consequence compared to the millions of women who rose from poverty with BRAC’s help, bending the arc of history through their own tenacity and grit. The challenges he faced often seemed insurmountable. Abed’s personal life was a tapestry of love and grief—a lover’s suicide, a wife who died in his arms. He was a taciturn man with a short temper that erupted on rare occasions. Many of his ventures failed, but Abed persevered.

This book is also the biography of an idea—the idea that hope itself has the power to overcome poverty. “For too long, people thought poverty was something ordained by a higher power, as immutable as the sun and the moon,” Abed wrote in 2018. His life’s mission was to put that myth to rest. This is the story of a man who lived a life of complexity, blemishes and all, driven by the conviction that in the dominion of human lives, hope will ultimately triumph over fate.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Fox That Killed My Goat

Chapter 2: A Moment of Awakening

Chapter 3: A Shy Boy

Chapter 4: The Swinging City

Chapter 5: Those Who Have Seen Death

Chapter 6: Catalyst for Revolution

Chapter 7: A Smoldering Ruin

Chapter 8: Visions and Revisions

Chapter9: Speak a True Word

Chapter 10: Can a Tiger Build a House?

Chapter 11: A Downward Spiral

Chapter 12: Small isn’t Beautiful

Chapter 13: Names on the Wall

Chapter 14: The Proving Ground

Chapter 15: Falling Out

Chapter 16: A Lonely Burdon

Chapter 17: A Simple Solution

Chapter 18: Changing the Pattern

Chapter 19: The One-Room Schoolhouse

Chapter 20: The Ten-Year Plan

Chapter 21: The Mystery of the Poisoned Crew

Chapter 22: Self-Sustaining Mode

Chapter 23: From Tagore’s Land

Chapter 24: They Cried Like They’d Lost a Son

Chapter 25: A Visit from an Old Friend

Chapter 26: The World’s Most Persecuted

Chapter 27: If I Had a Little More Time

Epilogue

A Note on Sources