BRAC is a flexible nonprofit development organization. Over the last few years BRAC has pursued an increasing number of commercial ventures, many of which are very successful. There is some concern that to great an expansion into for profit commercial enterprises might drain our resources and take attention away from our core development programs. They have become a multi-sector conglomerate operating under two brands: BRAC and Aarong.They are active in commercial areas ranging from banking and education to food processing, from luxury goods retailing to basic agricultural inputs and farming, and from being an internet service provider company to a printer. They face a challenge organizing these and future enterprises into a coherent structure and need to start thinking about commercial expansions more strategically, particularly in terms of building up our two brands.

BRAC Over view:

In February, BRAC was a national, private, non-profit development organization employing 26,000 regular staff and 34,000 teachers.It worked in 64,000 out of the 80,000 villages. It had a network of over 1,500 field offices and 14 training residential centers and was after the Bangladesh government, the nation's second largest employer and world's largest NGO (Non Governmental Organization).The BRAC provided the landless poor whom they called members, the vast majority of whom were women, with credit and financial services, training in income generating activities, and access to consumer markets under the BRAC development program (BDP).Village organization were at the heart of the BRAC system and the channel through which BRAC introduced and delivered services to its members.Made up of 35 to 50 women from a single village VOs met every week with a BRAC program organizer to discuss and carry out credit options facilitating weekly payment of loans, learn about health and other issues that impacted their lives.

BRAC had two key internal divisions:

1.BRAC Training Division (BTD) - which through its network of 12 residential Training and Resource centers and 2 Centers for Development Management, provided capacity building and professional development of both BRAC staff and members and trained over 60,000 people in 2002.

2.BRAC Research and Evaluation Division (RED) - which was renowned and carried out field research, impact assessments and program evolutions for both BRAC and external clients.

BRAC's audit and accounts department was particularly strong and progressive, possibly because the organization's founder, Mr. Fazle Hasan Abed was a chartered accountant, and it collected and collated detailed financial information every month.In 2002, BRAC initiate a new program to target the ultra poor in Bangladesh and ventured outside Bangladesh for the first time, by registering as a foreign nongovernmental organization in Afghanistan, providing credit for the poor, primary education for girls and setting up a number of health clinics.

BRAC had established a number of Program support enterprises- commercial projects. Program support enterprises primarily provided inputs to BRAC members and included: poultry farms, feed mills, prawn and fish hatcheries, seed processing centers and seed production farms, silk reeling centers and sericulture grainages, plant nurseries and a bull station. Commercial projects and related companies included: retail handicraft stores, a dairy and liquid milk plant, a printing press, a cold storage and vegetables export business, BRAC University, BRAC Bank, an internet services provider, IT education services, a housing and housing finance company, and poultry farm.

BRAC Program Support Enterprises:

BRAC believed that community development depended on the existence of varied income generating sectors within that community. BRAC sought to bring about social and economic change.`` The driver behind our entry into commercial and program support enterprises," explained Ahmed,``was the need to provide quality inputs and distribution channels for products generated by our members." ``BRAC is really a non-governmental corporation," added Abdul Mayweed Chowdhury, executive director, ``but the majority of our commercial activities are connected either forewords or backwards to our members, who are consumers, producers, and beneficiaries of BRAC commercial enterprises."

Poultry Farms, Fish and Prawn Hatcheries: In order to provide quality inputs to their members, BRAC operated six poultry farms, eight prawn hatcheries and four fish hatcheries. BRAC provided over 15 million day-old chicks, 15 million post larvae prawns and nearly 5,000 kg of fish spawn each year. Although BRAC members were the main customers for these inputs, many non- BRAC farmers also purchased inputs from BRAC, which had a reputation for fair prices and high quality.

Seed Processing Center: In 2003, 18 BRAC seed production farms fed two BRAC seed processing centers, where over 6,000 metric tons of rice and various vegetable seed were dried, sorted, cleaned, weighed, and packed. All BRAC seeds carried the BRAC brand. They started processing seeds in 1999 and used to have to improve two-third of our seeds needs.

Feed Mills: In 2000, BRAC established its third and largest feed mill. In 2003, total feed production exceeded 40,000 metric tons, representing over 20% of Bangladesh s feed needs and placing BRAC second, behind the government, in feed production. Approximately 10% of production was cattle feed and 90% chicken and only 30% of production was sold through BRAC field officers to BRAC members. All feed products carried the BRAC brand; In 2003 BRAC had plans to expand feed production further by opening a fourth mill in the near future.