Washington University in St. Louis is committed to collaborating with global partners to address some of the world’s greatest challenges. A recent meeting in Beijing illustrated that commitment, with the focus on lifting people out of poverty.
Li Zou, international director of the Center for Social Development (CSD) at the Brown School, had the opportunity to meet with Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus at Peking University.
Yunus, a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, economist and civil society leader, founded the Grameen Bank and pioneered the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. In 2006, he and Grameen received the peace prize for their efforts to create economic and social development. During their meeting, Zou and Yunus discussed ways to repair and rework current banking and financial systems to raise people out of poverty.
“I am very grateful for Peking University’s invitation to this thought-provoking meeting with the Nobel laureate Yunus,” Zou said. “Yunus emphasized that we as a society should give people opportunities to change their own lives. CSD and our long-term collaborators at Peking University — including Professors Sibin Wang and Suo Deng — have been working tirelessly to explore ways to give the next generation, children in China, an opportunity to develop and lead their own lives through the initiative of Child Development Accounts. “
Zou leads CSD’s international asset-building work and has contributed to the center’s research efforts on children’s development accounts for governments in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and South Korea.
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