Rebuilding a better world Online Course 11 th – 15 th of May 2020 with the Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus

The online course "Rebuilding a better world" took place from 11 to 20 May 2020; this was the first European distance higher education activity in which the Nobel Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus participated after the crisis triggered by the covid-19 emergency and will take place from 11 to 20 May 2020.

The initiative started from a proposal of City of Peace for Children Basilicata and University od Basilicata, inside the Yunus Social Business Centre of Basilicata, in partnership with a network of Italian Yunus Social Business Centres active in Bologna, Venezia, Firenze and Urbino.

How can we understand and deal with the economic crisis everyone fears using old tools? Will there be room to create a new economy more aligned with human needs? Will we plunge in an Orwellian nightmare or will manage to guarantee human rights such as fundamental freedom of movement, expression, and the right to asylum? Will the nature take its revenge as it’s doing now in deserted cities in which animal roam and the air is purer after the factories have been shut or will there be further exploitation of environmental resources because of the economic crisis?

From the need to find answer to this crucial questions was born the idea of an online course that addressed the main directions of change and proposes a vision of the current state of the art trying to glimpse what, how and how much our world will change.

The online course also aimed to spread basic knowledge about social business, involving students, professors and entrepreneurs interested in the dissemination of social business methodology in Italy and in the world, making full use of the potential of distance learning.

In addition to the Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, the experts of the Yunus Center in Dhaka, Father Enzo Fortunato, director of the press room of the Sacred Convent of Assisi, and the architect Mario Cucinella, one of the most important Italian architects engaged in the diffusion of innovative and eco-sustainable architecture, participated as teachers in the course.

In 4 seminars during the month of May 2020, participants had  the opportunity to discuss the future that awaits us after the coronavirus and to verify how social business can represent a great opportunity to rethink a new global economic system, more just and efficient, in the world that will come after the health emergency according to the latest reflections elaborated by Prof. Muhammad Yunus and recently published in Italy in the newspaper la Repubblica.

The recordings of the seminars will be published on the YouTube channel of the Unibas

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RbBWCfws0IjhH2MMKs2Gw

Program of the course

11th May – 16.00 Rome time, 8,00 pm Bangladesh time

“Rebuilding post covid-19 world”. Professor Muhammad Yunus

14th May – 16,00 Rome time, 8,00 pm Bangladesh time

“Topics for Discussion: Yunus Centre Activities, Social Business and Healthcare”

Ms.Lamiya Morshed – Executive Director of the Yunus Centre

Mr. Moin Chowdhury – Managing Director Grameen Kalyan

Mr. KIshwar Imdad - Acting Managing Director of Grameen Health Care Services Ltd (GHS) & Chief Executive Officer of Samajik Health Science Institute and Research Center Ltd.

18 th of May – 16,00 Rome time, 8,00 pm Bangladesh time

“Social Business and its challenges”

Prof. M. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury - Department of Finance and the Executive Director of the Center for Microfinance and Development, University of Dhaka, Academic Advisor, Yunus Centre

20 th of May – 16 Rome Time, 8,00 pm Bangladesh time

“Yunus Social Business Centre Network” Zeenat Islam, Relations Manager, Academia Network, Shihab Quader, International Projects Manager

“The experience of the social business in Italy” Prof. Giuseppe Torluccio – YSBC of Bologna, Prof. Enrico Testi – YSBC Firenze,  Prof. Stefano Campostrini – YSBC Venezia,  Prof. Elisabetta Righini – YSBC Urbino,  Prof. Ferdinando Di Carlo – YSBC of Basilicata

“The House for peace an experience of environmental sustainability for human rights”, Ach. Mario Cucinella and Enzo Cursio – City of Peace Foundation

“The new approach to the economy”, Father Enzo Fortunato – director of the press room of the Sacred Convent of Assisi