Prof Yunus wins 2019 Global Women’s Leadership award

Dhaka, July 9 (UNB) – Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus has been honored with the ‘2019 Global Women’s Leadership Award’ at the Global Summit of Women in Basel, Switzerland.

Prof Yunus received the award on July 5 for his internationally-recognised work in poverty alleviation and economic empowerment of women globally through his pioneering work of microfinance and social business, said a media release on Tuesday.

Millions of poor women around the world found their inner capacity to take up entrepreneurial activities to generate income and establish their economic freedom and individual dignity, it said.

The Global Summit of Women is a project of the Global Women Research and Education Institute, an organisation based in Washington, DC, USA.

Over 1,200 leaders in business and government from 65 countries around the world attended this year’s premier business and economic forum for women which have been taking place for the last 29 years.

The theme of this year’s summit was ‘Women: Redefining Success’.

The Global Summit of Women was conceived as the nexus at which all sectors – public, private and nonprofit – would come together under the common vision of dramatically expanding women’s economic opportunities globally through exchanges of working solutions and creative strategies forged by women leaders from different parts of the world. 

Notable speakers and guests included Sung Joo Kim, Chair & Chief Visionary Officer, MCM Holdings AG, Martin Jetter, Chairman, IBM Europe, Christine Schmid, Managing Director, Credit Suisse, Mai Chen, Board Director, Bank of New Zealand, Gurveen Singh, Chief Human Resources Officer, Reckitt Benckiser, UK, Carolina Muller-Mohl, President, Muller-Mohl Group, Inga Legasova, CEO, RemiLing, Jill Ader, Chair, Egon Zehnder, United Kingdom,  Muriel Penicaud, Minister for Labor, France, Saara Kuugongelwa-amadhila, Prime Minister of Namibia and Atifete Jahjaga, former President of Kosovo.