“We live in an era of deep uncertainty. where new norms, technologies, and governance are changing our world at lightning speed.”— Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Earthna Summit 2025
A Vision Built on Justice, A Future Assembled on Hope
In an age of climate unrest, economic injustice, and global chaos, few voices are sounding with the moral gravitas and prophetic imagination of Professor Muhammad Yunus. Speaking at the Earthna Summit 2025 in Doha, Qatar, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Bangladesh interim government Chief Adviser delivered a keynote address that stirred hearts and minds in concert—a powerful call to humankind to change course toward a more equitable, just, and sustainable world.
Dr. Yunus unveiled a bold six-point agenda for radical transformation to a global audience of policymakers, scholars, business entrepreneurs, and civil society representatives. His address was a call to conscience, not a mere policy manual; it was a reminder that true development has to serve not a privileged few but the common good of the world and humankind.
Drawing on his life-long belief in economic justice, social business, and popular empowerment, Dr. Yunus’ proposals appeal to the world to move from traditional models of profit-driven expansion and towards an alternative paradigm focused on equity, dignity, and environmental balance.
This article gives a longer and more analytical treatment to those six proposals—examining their strategic contours and far-reaching implications. It aims to illuminate how Dr. Yunus’ vision speaks not only to the policy paradigms of the day but to the dreams of tomorrow’s generation. From people’s empowerment at the grassroots level in the Global South to urgent global reforms in financial justice and humanitarian solidarity, the master plan he proposes redefines what it means to construct—and for whom development truly is. At a time when humanity is searching for guidance as much as inspiration, Dr. Yunus gives us both. Here, his vision is considered a call to action—and a beacon to a more humane, sustainable, and equitable world.
Diagnosing the Problem: A Faulty Economic System
At the core of Dr. Yunus’s speech was the clear statement that poverty is not natural; it is man-made—the product of systemic flaws in the world economic architecture. While inequality is rising, climate change is accelerating, and democratic principles are being attacked, Yunus reminded the world that transformational change must begin with radical thinking about existing economic and governance models.
He identified multilateral exhaustion, geopolitical instability, ecological deterioration, and the erosion of human rights as critical symptoms of this sick architecture, which must be collectively healed through collective, ethical, and cooperative effort.
The Six Proposals: A Blueprint for a Better World
- Strengthening Financial Inclusion: A Pillar for Economic Empowerment and Social Justice
In his inspiring address at the Earthna Summit 2025, Nobel Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus underscored that financial inclusion is not only an economic necessity—it is also a moral one and a foundation for empowering the underprivileged. He clarified that withholding millions of individuals from access to fundamental financial services is both a cause and an effect of entrenched poverty, perpetuating cycles of deprivation and dependency in the Global South and globally.
Despite decades of economic growth, large swaths of the global population remain unbanked or underbanked—beyond the reach of the formal financial system. Being denied access to the financial sector means that individuals, especially women, youth, and rural business people, lack the instruments to participate and contribute meaningfully to the economy.
Dr. Yunus noted that spreading democratic access to such financial tools as credit, savings, insurance, and cell phone banking matters in cutting back systemic barriers. He called for transforming the design of finance—using digital technology to bring inclusive financial services to the door of every village, refugee camp, and slum city. Cell phones, he noted, must become drivers of economic empowerment, which ensures even the poor have the means to create jobs, manage risk, and build more sustainable livelihoods.
This vision is strongly aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 (No Poverty) and 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). By opening up capital to people, financial inclusion generates entrepreneurship, encourages self-sufficiency, and ignites local economic development. It creates a bottom-up growth engine that focuses on human potential rather than amassing capital.
Moreover, Yunus stressed that microfinance is not merely a tool of policy; it is a tool for achieving dignity. Once individuals are empowered to make their own financial decisions, they are no longer simple recipients of gifts but become members of the movement that creates their own destiny.
In essence, Dr. Yunus envisions a world in which no one is too poor to have a dream and no society is too remote to be reached. In his design, expanding financial inclusion is not just a question of access to capital—it is a matter of unleashing the power of human imagination, bringing about social mobility, and recasting economics as a force for uplift rather than exploitation.
- Mainstreaming Social Business: Redefining Enterprise for Humanity
With a liberating call to systems change, Dr. Muhammad Yunus urged global leaders at the Earthna Summit 2025 to adopt a revolutionary but timely paradigm shift: social business mainstreaming as the pillars of the new world economic order. Underlying this is a revolutionary but quintessentially human proposition—a mission to eradicate social and ecological crises through entrepreneurship without regard for personal gains.
Unlike conventional firms that exist to maximize shareholder value, social firms are established with one purpose only: to address human needs and social issues through enterprise resources. As Dr. Yunus emphasized, this method does not abandon capitalism but redefines and makes it more honorable, prioritizing purpose over profit and people over personal wealth. “We need to stop thinking of capitalism as a one-track road to profit,” he argued. “We must build new roads for innovation—roads that lead to equity, sustainability, and dignity for all.”
Referring to the legendary humanitarian Albert Einstein, “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value,” Yunus encapsulated the social business philosophy: a value-creation methodology instead of value-extraction.
As shown in the globally acclaimed Grameen model, social businesses have already proven to create radical change in sectors from healthcare to renewable energy, education, and agriculture. These businesses are structured to reinvest their gains into expanding their social mission, so growth results in amplified human flourishing rather than personal enrichment.
Dr. Yunus stressed that governments, corporations, and world institutions must integrate social business into mainstream development plans, procurement, and investment portfolios to realize this model’s full potential. He proposed establishing social business incubators worldwide—especially in developing nations—to enable young people to create solutions for their communities without being bound by profit maximization.
In his vision, mainstreaming social business is not just an economic transition—it’s a leap in civilization. It reorients the moral compass of business away from self to community, away from short-term gain to long-term well-being. As humankind grapples with intensifying inequality, climatic devastation, and loss of faith in institutions, Dr. Yunus offers an inspiring and feasible choice: an economy for humanity, not one that seeks to exploit it.
In this new paradigm, business is a force for good—not because of philanthropy but because it is built to care.
- Empowering Youth as Agents of Change: Leadership Begins Now
The youth must not be seen as future leaders; they are leaders now,” Professor Muhammad Yunus stated in a compelling articulation of intergenerational responsibility at the Earthna Summit 2025. With these words, he called out to a centuries-old but outmoded myth that excludes young people from the decision-making table, waiting patiently for a future over which they have no control. For Yunus, the time to empower the youth is not tomorrow but today.
In an age of exponentially changing technology, ecological peril, and global politics in motion, Dr. Yunus emphasized that young people’s imagination, vigor, and ethical attention are not optional resources—they are obligatory agents of change. Educating them, retraining them for the digital and green economies, and cultivating their civic awareness are not acts of charity; they are necessities to rescue the world.
Quoting the words of the late U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Yunus reminded his listeners: “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” To this end, he argued, we must tear down the structural barriers muffling young people and limiting their access to power, opportunity, and innovation. Young people must be brought into policy-making spaces, governance structures, climate talks, and economic planning—not as tokens but as coequal stakeholders.
Dr. Yunus appealed to governments, schools, and firms to create youth-led innovation spaces—social labs, start-up incubators, and public-private ventures that include young change agents. He also underscored civil action, advocating policies that bring more young people into the electoral process, community service, and grassroots movement building.
This appeal is consistent with several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions). But for Dr. Yunus, the imperative of youth empowerment transcends institutional boundaries—it is, as he emphatically declared, a matter of survival.
Today’s youth are not merely the heirs to a fragile planet but architects of its renewal. Dr. Yunus hopes for a world in which their voices are heard, and their visions are acted upon. Trusting the young generation, he invites all others to do likewise—to leave patrician attitudes behind and proceed with partnership.
In his words and vision, youth empowerment is not an afterthought in development discourse—it is its very headline.
- Achieving Global Peace and Justice: The Moral Foundation of Sustainable Development
At the Earthna Summit 2025, Professor Muhammad Yunus passionately reminded us that the pursuit of sustainable development is inextricably linked to the quest for peace and justice. Development cannot be sown in the soil of violence, nor can progress flourish under the weight of oppression. There can be no prosperity without peace and no legitimacy in the institutions we build without justice. As Yunus emphatically stated, peace is not a dream or a luxury but a human dignity and international advancement imperative.
In arguing for diplomacy of justice, Yunus called for a renewed commitment by the world to principled conflict resolution and the protection of fundamental human rights. He emphasized that peace must be more than merely the absence of war; it must be an active presence of fairness, compassion, and inclusivity. Global institutions and political leaders, he urged, must rise above short-term geopolitical interests and act with moral courage to address the root causes of conflict—poverty, disenfranchisement, occupation, and systemic inequality.
Dr. Yunus gave voice to the voiceless and the forgotten by drawing attention to two of the longest-running humanitarian crises of our time: the long-suffering Palestinians and the stateless Rohingya. These communities, he argued, are testaments to systemic failure and collective moral apathy in global governance.
“The Palestinians are not disposable,” Yunus declared emphatically. Their continuing suffering, he said, is not just a regional crisis—a stain on the world’s conscience. He referred to the recurring violence, displacement, and impoverishment inflicted on Palestinian families under occupation and demanded international respect for international law, human rights, and the right to self-determination.
Equally urgent was his call to act for over 1.2 million Rohingya refugees hosted by Bangladesh for years. He emphasized that Their prolonged displacement has incurred staggering economic, environmental, and social costs to the host nation while their underlying causes remain unaddressed. Yunus warned that the Myanmar crisis poses a grave danger to regional stability and international credibility. The global commitment to sustainable development sounds hollow without accountability for such injustices.
This principled stance is strongly aligned with SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) and calls for a revival of multilateralism—where diplomacy is in service to people, not power, and international institutions are led by integrity, not inertia.
As Dr. Yunus sees it, development without justice is an illusion. If we are to build a truly sustainable and inclusive world, we must follow what Martin Luther King Jr. so beautifully articulated:
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
In speaking for the voiceless and summoning global accountability, Professor Yunus reminds the world that peace and justice are not discretionary development outcomes—they are their very foundation.
- Honoring Financial Commitments to Least Developed Countries: Bridging the Gap Between Promise and Practice
In his keynote address to the Earthna Summit 2025, Professor Muhammad Yunus delivered a candid but much-needed rebuke of the global North for its historical failure to meet Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitments, particularly to the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Despite decades of solemn pledges, the reality is stark: the 0.2% of Gross National Income (GNI) pledged to LDCs has amounted to a meager 0.09%—a shortfall that erodes the very foundation of the international development agenda.
Yunus argued that this financing gap is not a technical issue; it is a moral failure. It reflects a troubling disconnect between the rhetoric of global solidarity and the practice of international economics. The implications are profound: development projects are on hold, climate resilience is underfunded, and vulnerable nations are trapped in debt cycles simply to stay current on basic services. As he emphatically put it, “Global commitments must be honored not just in principle, but in practice—because broken promises breed broken systems.”
He called for a retooled global financing architecture—one that puts concessional financing arrangements at the forefront, grounded in the real conditions and challenges of LDCs. Specifically, he advocated for including disaster clauses in financial agreements—clauses that allow for debt suspension or reprofiling in the event of natural disasters, pandemics, or economic shocks. They would enable vulnerable countries to channel resources towards recovery and resilience instead of being bogged down by debt repayment precisely when they need it most.
This symmetric financing dream is central to achieving SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) and making the Sustainable Development Goals not the sole prerogative of more affluent nations, but universal in practice. Yunus emphasized that sustainable development could not be built on asymmetric partnerships where the weakest economies bear the maximum burden.
He further urged donor nations and multilateral development banks to shift their risk perceptions and introduce financing instruments that reward innovation, transparency, and community-led development in LDCs. The focus, he reiterated, must shift from charity to justice—from aid as obligation to investment as empowerment.
Yunus’ call resonates with the timeless words of Dag Hammarskjöld, late United Nations Secretary-General:
“The UN was not set up to take human beings to heaven, but to stop human beings from going to hell.”
In defaulting on fiscal promises to the world’s poor, we march ever closer to that moral and developmental hell.
In calling out inequality and promoting actionable fiscal reforms, Professor Yunus reminded us of a fundamental truth: shared prosperity demands shared responsibility. The path to global equity begins with integrity—and it begins with keeping our word.
- Creating a New Way of Living: Zero Waste, Zero Carbon, Zero Personal Gain – A Strategy for Human Survival
The most deeply insightful and far-sighted element of his Earthna Summit 2025 address was Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus’s passionate, urgent call to re-engineer our shared lifestyle. He laid out a radical, yet deeply ethical, plan for humanity’s future—one founded upon a counterculture of sustainability, simplicity, and mutual commitment. Our new lifestyle, he declared, must be founded upon three revolutionary pillars: Zero Waste, Zero Carbon, and Zero Personal Profit.
This was more a civilizational proposition than a policy prescription—a summons to re-examine the values that inform our choices, our economies, and our ambitions.
Dr. Yunus argued that the current global model, driven by consumption, competition, and greed, is environmentally unsustainable and ethically bankrupt. As an alternative to this failed model, he proposed a regenerative economy—one that coexists with nature, respects finite resources, and measures progress not by accumulation, but by contribution.
We must transition from excess to essential lives,” he urged, calling on individuals, institutions, and governments to embrace a new consciousness—where success is no longer defined by wealth, but by positive social and environmental impact.
The first tenet, Zero Waste, summons us to close the culture of disposability and overproduction. Yunus summoned circular economies where materials are reused, repurposed, and recycled, echoing indigenous philosophies which teach us to “leave no trace” and to treat Earth not as a resource, but as a relative.
The second principle, Zero Carbon, is a moral imperative as climate catastrophe intensifies. Yunus asserted that every human activity, from transport to home energy, needs to be reinvented with sustainability in mind. He called for bottom-up solutions—solar cooperatives, green buildings, low-emission agriculture—and policies that accelerate a fair transition to renewable energy.
The third and most radical principle, Zero Personal Profit, redefines the very essence of enterprise. Building on his decades of pioneering social business, Yunus proposed an economic system where businesses are created not to generate personal profit, but to solve social and environmental problems. In this system, wealth is circulated, not concentrated; success is shared, not hoarded.
He reminded the world that the pursuit of unlimited personal profit is not a law of nature, but a cultural invention—and like any invention, it can be dismantled and re-invented.
Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, he said: “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.”
Dr. Yunus’ vision is not naïve idealism—it’s enlightened pragmatism. In an era of ecological tipping points, political disillusionment, and increasing inequality, his words offer not only hope, but also direction. It challenges us to build a way of living—and a world—that is not extractive, but expressive of our best values: compassion, cooperation, and conscience.
In brief, the creation of this new mode of existence is not simply an act of sustainability—it is an act of survival. It is the supreme act of intergenerational justice, leaving for future generations not a world at risk, but a world renewed in purpose.
Global and Regional Implications: From Policy to Practice
Dr. Yunus’ address is not an academic exercise—a call to change in theory—but one in pragmatic optimism. At the regional level, particularly for South Asia and the Middle East, his suggestions underline the imperatives of cross-border cooperation on challenges that concern us all: displacement, climate migration, youth unemployment, and corruption.
Locally in Bangladesh, his vision assists the country’s ongoing transition under the caretaker government, driven by reform, inclusivity, and diplomatic dignity. News that Qatar has chosen to hire 725 Bangladeshi soldiers highlights a growing confidence in Yunus’ leadership and Bangladesh’s re-engagement in global peace and development architectures.
To the world at large, his address challenges institutions—from multinationals to the United Nations—to re-imagine the metrics of progress. It’s a call to go beyond GDP, beyond CSR superficiality, to revolutionary justice founded upon human dignity.
Solidarity with the Oppressed: Reclaiming Humanity in the Cases of Palestine and the Rohingya
Among the many compelling moments of Professor Muhammad Yunus’ address at the Earthna Summit 2025, none had a more lasting effect than his uncompromising moral position in speaking up for the world’s most persecuted and marginalized individuals. In scorching lucidity and with emotional imperative, he summoned to the world’s attention that sustainable development could not be built on the shattered backs of the oppressed. By citing the destiny of Palestinians and the Rohingya, Dr. Yunus transformed the agenda of the summit from abstraction to accountability—from metrics to morality.
He categorically stated that Palestinians and Rohingyas are not geopolitical footnotes—they are human beings, endowed with dignity, whose suffering indicts us all. In doing so, he challenged the present trend in international politics to reduce humanitarian crises to policy irritants or diplomatic stalemates. Instead, he reframed them as moral litmus tests for the conscience of humanity.
“The Palestinians are not disposable,” Yunus declared—a scathing denunciation of the deafening silence and selective humanity that too often characterize international responses. With this statement, he punctured the veil of neutrality that allows continuing occupation, displacement, and violence in the name of political expediency. He insisted that the Palestinian predicament is not a regional issue but an international moral crisis, one that reveals the cracks in international law, human rights bodies, and multilateral diplomacy.
No less compelling was his call to action on behalf of the Rohingya, one of the world’s most persecuted ethnic groups. Yunus noted the decades-long burden borne by Bangladesh, which has, with limited resources and immense humanity, hosted more than 1.2 million Rohingya refugees for decades. He emphasized that their protracted statelessness—in the face of global indifference and inaction—constitutes a growing threat not only to regional stability but to the moral foundations of international refugee protection.
Dr. Yunus warned that this humanitarian crisis must not be normalized or forgotten. The remedy, he urged, is not indefinite camp detention or token aid, but an international effort to promote voluntary, safe, and dignified repatriation—one founded on justice and accountability for the crimes that drove the Rohingya from their home country.
In so naming these crises and confronting their moral implications, Dr. Yunus defined justice as sustainability in its most human terms. He reminded us that a world that turns a deaf ear to the oppressed can never be sustainable—because peace built on silence is ever precarious, and progress purchased with indifference is morally bankrupt.
In brief, Yunus calls for a solidarity that is not seasonal, selective, or symbolic—but ongoing, inclusive, and action-oriented. He called on world leaders not merely to speak, but to act—diplomatically, economically, and institutionally—for those whose voices are silenced and whose rights are denied.
As Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel once said,
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”
Dr. Yunus challenges us to dispel that indifference—and to rebuild our global institutions on the basis of empathy, justice, and common moral courage.
Conclusion: Leadership for the Next Generation
At a moment of performative politics and rhetorical excess, Dr. Yunus’ Earthna address stands out for its simplicity, its boldness, and its credibility. It calls for leadership that is not obsessed with power but with people. Leadership that prioritizes the planet over profit, and peace over politics.
His six proposals provide not only a roadmap but a mirror—to policymakers, business leaders, and citizens around the globe—posing the question: What kind of future are we building, and for whom? As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.” Dr. Muhammad Yunus is, once again, reminding us of this reality—and urging the world to act upon it.