Will COVID-19 relief plans reach the world’s poorest people?
COVID-19 relief programmes must intentionally include people living in extreme poverty to ensure a resilient and equitable economic recovery post-pandemic.
Shameran Abed is the Executive Director of BRAC International.
Shameran joined BRAC Bangladesh in 2009 and BRAC International in 2012, and has been instrumental in bringing BRAC’s flagship programmes of microfinance and ultra-poor graduation to global scale. Under his leadership, BRAC International’s microfinance portfolio has seen impressive growth and a renewed focus on client impact. Since 2016, Shameran has also led BRAC’s ultra-poor graduation work and played an instrumental role in setting up the UPGI to spearhead global advocacy and provide technical assistance to governments and other organisations.
Shameran has significant Board experience on several non-profit and corporate entities, chairing the board of bKash, BRAC Bank’s mobile financial services subsidiary and one of the world’s largest mobile money providers, and serving on the boards of several institutions including BRAC Bank and BRAC Uganda Bank.
COVID-19 relief programmes must intentionally include people living in extreme poverty to ensure a resilient and equitable economic recovery post-pandemic.
Research has shown that transforming the economic lives of the extremely poor is complex and requires coordinated, multidimensional interventions.