Fifty years at the top is an achievement for any organization and BRAC has done that. Abed bhai came from a history that suited the first fifty years. But that history is rapidly ending and the challenge for the current BRAC leadership is to do a new “Abed”.  As it celebrates the past, the future kicks at the door. The old BRAC is over with its “noblesse oblige” values to do good for others less advantageous. In the post 1971 turmoil and turnover, NGOs were the last resort of the well-meaning and dependent middle class who got left out in the post-Independence class-power distribution. But NGOs are coming to an end. If BRAC is to survive, it needs to look at a future without borrowed wisdom from the West and explore and use the lesson from why despite so much denial, the rural poor have done so well. Also read: UNDP to work with BRAC for accelerating pace of poverty reduction Intermediaries in decline BRAC is like all development organizations - an intermediary outfit. It carried resources of the better off world, mostly external to the rural poverty zones. It sustained the poor and as food related distress declined,  graduation from ultra-poverty increased and general health and social conditions got better overall.  But they were old battles and the BRAC after 50 faces a world in which people on their own tackled Covid even as the West predicted disaster while withholding vaccines for the rest of the world. The “rights-based” idea spaces dominated by the NGO is largely replaced by the economic , more natural than elite constructed. Increasing strength of the BRAC client population means old services are not as required as before. Micro-credit as an internal co-funder of its operations, is very important but the donor world is battered beyond belief. In the last 2 years, our most shocking discussion was with a donor who said, “GOB doesn’t listen to us anymore as it has so much more money.”  The mental shift has to be from “Bangladesh as poor” to “Bangladesh as potentially well off” . It’s the Liberal-Left that stigmatizes wealth making, those who are not in poverty themselves. This colonial hangover must go and as China has shown wealth making of the majority is a social change tool. Also read: BRAC continues emergency services for Rohingyas, locals amid Covid-19 pandemic: BRAC Global ED Into the future with dirty hands and all BRAC didn’t want to enter the migration sector as a player because Abed bhai didn’t want people crowding the office and parades of unhappy clients. He didn’t then but when he did try it didn’t work. That was a lost opportunity in 2005. It’s the migration money that has become the most powerful agents of change in the rural areas. Rural intermediation has also grown but it is located in economics and exclusive to them as experiences of the Ultra-poverty alleviation shows.   Banking is weak because most loans go through connections in the formal sector. He thought that Bkash would make banking easier and it has.  The rise of digital money also shows that. Clearly, he was thinking on the edge of the last historical phase but the focus on economics was imagined as support of the poor and micro entrepreneurs. That has changed as SME enterprise and rural bonds and savings markets are bigger than ever. Agriculture and Aarong  are small time sectors. Its economic enhancement projects need to go to scale. BRAC needs to reimagine the future as Abed bhai did 50 years back.     Increasingly, the people show they are able to organize their life better than the GOB does and as donors prescribe. Hanging on to SDGs should not be BRAC’s priority but high intensity economic expansion of people should be.  A much strengthened rural population doesn't need NGOs as much as they did till the 2000s.  BRAC needs to get a makeover. Hopefully, it's goodbye to the old BRAC and welcome to the new BRAC. Congrats. 

 Afsan Chowdhury, a veteran journalist, author, Liberation War historian and recipient of Bangla Academy Award, has joined UNB and Dhaka Courier as Editor-at-Large. “We’re extremely proud to have Afsan Chowdhury, founding member of Dhaka Courier and UNB, to rejoin us as Editor-at-Large. His experience and knowledge of history and journalism will be of immense benefit for the further growth of our media outfit, which has emerged as the largest generator and aggregator of news in Bangladesh,” said Enayetullah Khan, the Editor-in-Chief of UNB and Dhaka Courier. With Afsan Chowdhury’s joining, UNB’s digital journey will also get momentum, allowing it to serve its readers with relevant and timely content as he is a seasoned social media strategist, Enayetullah Khan said. Read Enayetullah Khan represents Bangladesh at 17th OANA General Assembly Having a nationwide network of over 100 correspondents and international correspondents in New York, New Delhi, Beijing, Cairo, Los Angeles, London, Brussels, Tokyo, Vancouver and Singapore, UNB serves over 20 million viewers, listeners and readers. Currently, UNB has News Exchange Agreements with over 40 countries in the world, including PTI of India, Xinhua of China, Kyodo of Japan, Bernama of Malaysia, AsiaNet, Yonhap of South Korea, ITAR-TASS News Agency of Russia, FAAPA of Africa, CAN of Cyprus, Moroccan News Agency (MAP), Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) and Emirates News Agency (WAM) of the UAE to name a few. Read Cosmos Foundation and Liberation War Museum sign MoU Founded in 1988, UNB is the first fully digitalised wire service in South Asia and is the principal partner in news exchange with AP, one of the world's largest wire services. Also, a member of News Agencies World Congress (NAWC), UNB has remained true to its core values of accuracy and integrity.

Can conventional mass media survive the epidemic is a question that affects everyone. It's not about professionals being dumped in their mid career but about the quality and access to information for all. The corona crisis has again put the spotlight on this so called “mainstream” media. It seems the relevance and popularity of this media was under threat for a while. And this threat was enhanced by the corona crisis creating a new crisis.