You may have heard of the concept of "inclusive growth," the idea that the increasing economic prosperity should benefit everyone, including the poorest. Thursday in Budapest, some of us were challenged to go beyond that — to treat the poor, in the words of Amartya Sen, as "active agents of change, rather than passive recipients of dispensed benefits." It requires growth in consciousness, not just economies.
We were challenged Thursday at the graduation ceremony for the impressive Central European University – the most densely international university in the world – where Sir Fazle Hasan Abed received the Open Society Prize, given to "an outstanding individual whose achievements have contributed substantially to the creation of an open society." Previous recipients include Sir Karl Popper, author of The Open Society and its Enemies, after which the prize is named; Vaclav Havel, writer and first president of the Czech Republic; Richard Holbrooke, U.S. diplomat; Kofi Annan, former secretary-general of the United Nations; and Aryeh Neier, an architect of the international human rights movement.
Sir Fazle has spent the last 41 years creating opportunities for the poor to serve as agents of positive change for themselves, their families, and their neighbors. Abed bhai, as he is affectionately known to friends and colleagues ("bhai" is a friendly honorific in Bengali meaning "brother"), said Thursday in his commencement speech, "Poor people, especially women, can be organized for power…With right set of organizational tools, they can become actors in history. This, to me, is the meaning of an open society – a society where everyone has the freedom to realize their full human rights and potential."
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