Fazle Hasan Abed’s legacy: The honour and the man

As Bangladesh posthumously bestows the Independence Award on Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, it recognises a legacy that helped build Bangladesh after 1971. While Abed Bhai is widely remembered for BRAC’s contributions to poverty alleviation and general development focused on the poor, his involvement in the 1970 Bhola Cyclone relief work and the Liberation War of 1971 is less discussed.

They show a person whose moral vision went beyond the limits of conventional social work and entered the realm of imagining the possibilities for those who had lost much but had the strength to fight back.

I recently interviewed Martha Chen and Lincoln Chen, who shared their memories of Abed Bhai with us on those two events. Martha Chen worked with BRAC in the 1970s, working with women to exit poverty in villages and urban settlements, while Lincoln Chen represented the Ford Foundation in India and Bangladesh from 1973 to 1987. In 2008, he became the Chair of the Board of BRAC USA.

We excerpt:

“Abed Bhai’s transformation began in the aftermath of the devastating Bhola Cyclone of

November 1970. At the time, he was a high-ranking executive at Shell Oil, leading a comfortable life in Chattogram. However, when the cyclone claimed half a million lives, he could not remain a passive witness. Mobilising friends and colleagues, he turned his garage into a relief hub, a foreshadowing of the extraordinary institutional leader he would become later.”

“This was no ordinary relief effort. Abed Bhai and his team, working through the newly formed Health, Education and Livelihood Programme (HELP), coordinated international aid and orchestrated complex relief operations. Supplies arrived via German helicopters, and seaplanes dropped emergency goods.”

What set him apart was his ability to swiftly organise, strategise and execute, ensuring that aid reached the most vulnerable. He was not merely providing relief; he was redefining how disaster response could be structured.

“Yet his humanitarian instinct was not just about logistics — it was about dignity. He understood that beyond food and shelter, survivors needed agency in rebuilding their lives. This philosophy would later become BRAC’s guiding principle: empowering people rather than imposing solutions.”

“If the cyclone stirred his conscience, the war solidified his commitment to a greater cause. The brutality of Operation Searchlight on 25 March 1971 left Dhaka and its people reeling. For Abed, staying neutral was never an option. Working from Chattogram, he played a crucial role in supporting the resistance.”

“His contributions extended beyond strategy and support. In London, he mobilised resources, mortgaged his own home, and even arranged funding for mercenaries to sabotage Pakistani supply lines — a lesser-known yet telling example of his ability to think beyond conventional resistance.“

“His actions were neither random nor impulsive; they stemmed from a deep understanding of structural organisation. This meticulous attention to planning would later define BRAC’s success in rebuilding a war-torn nation.”

“When Bangladesh emerged independent, Abed Bhai did not return to the corporate world. Instead, he chose the remote village of Shalla, where returning refugees arrived with nothing but despair. There, he realised that rehabilitation was not enough. The cycle of poverty had to be broken, not merely patched over.”

“From those beginnings, BRAC was born — not as a conventional charity but as an institution pioneering social enterprises, microfinance, education, and healthcare, all grounded in self-sufficiency.“

“His model was radical: rather than simply dispensing aid, BRAC would teach people to sustain themselves. He was not just a social worker; he was an architect of change.”

“What set Abed Bhai apart was his unwavering pragmatism. His philosophy was simple: if a solution works, scale it. If it does not, discard it. He refused to be swayed by ideology or sentiment.”

“This was evident in one of his boldest initiatives — taking Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) nationwide despite initial scepticism. Instead of relying on traditional pilot projects, he deployed an army of health workers to teach mothers how to save their children from dehydration. The result? A staggering reduction in child mortality rates, proving that empowerment, not dependency, was the key to sustainable change.”

“For Abed Bhai, no achievement was ever final. His ability to constantly evolve set him apart. He moved from rehabilitation to development, from microfinance to social enterprises, from national impact to global reach. Whether launching Aarong to empower artisans, creating BRAC Bank to revolutionise financial inclusion, or pioneering digital finance through bKash, he remained ahead of his time.”

“His journey was not just about building institutions; it was about proving that the poorest of the poor could be at the centre of economic growth. He did not just uplift individuals; he reshaped entire systems.”

As Bangladesh honours Sir Fazle Hasan Abed with the Independence Award, it is not merely acknowledging his contributions; it is recognising a philosophy that transformed lives. In remembering Abed Bhai, we do not just celebrate what he did — we remind ourselves of what is possible when vision meets execution. The award is recognition of that vision.