Microcredit pioneer Prof Muhammad Yunus has called for initiatives for zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero carbon emission in the world.
He suggested expansion of social business to meet this “three zero” goals and the post-2015 development agenda.
“If you want to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs), you have to bring social business into the world. With the conventional business, sustainability is not possible,” Prof Yunus said at a function marking the sixth Social Business Day in Dhaka yesterday.
He sees four things—young people, technology, social business and good governance—are the key pillars to completely change the world in the future.
The Nobel peace prize winner also laid emphasis on social business to reduce poverty, unemployment and carbon emission rates to zero level.
He said this would make the world safer and better for the future generations.
The event was organised at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, one month earlier from the usual date due to the month of Ramadan this year.
The day is usually observed on 28 June, the birthday of Muhammad Yunus. The first Social Business Day was observed in Dhaka on June 28, 2010.
About 1,700 people from 32 countries comprising diplomats, entrepreneurs, businesspeople and academics were present on the occasion.
The social business pioneer stressed the need to re-design the world’s economic system to put poverty off.
He said the youth should be advised to become entrepreneurs, not to look for jobs. He added the unemployment should be “unemployed.”
“We have created a lot of problems with our distorted ideas. Unemployment is one of them.”
He said the world’s thinking should be redesigned so that human beings can be rediscovered.
“Eight million people are added every year to this planet. New people are not guests, they are residents of this planet with rights to live. We have to make their life better than ours now.”
He said the young people have creative power and ability to understand things in a different way from the old generation.
Prof Yunus said the young people should not be polluted with old-fashioned thinking, and they have to be brought into new kind of thinking.
Prof Yunus continued: “If you put all the wealth of the world in a few hands and left everybody empty- handed that society is not definitely sustainable.”
About switching the world from MDGs to SDGs, he said conventional business cannot offer sustainable development goals.
He said in 20 years time, technology will make the world completely different.
“If you put technology in the social business, things will start changing in a completely different way.”
Source: Dhaka Tribune
