Bangladeshi Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus has received the Hillary Rodham Clinton Award.
Former US secretary of state Clinton presented the award to him at an event at Georgetown University's Gaston Hall on Thursday local time.
In a statement released on its Facebook page on Friday, the Yunus Centre outlined the details of the award ceremony.
Clinton and Georgetown University's Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) jointly give out the award.
A total of four people were honoured at the event. The other recipients were Reema Nanavaty, director of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) of India, and Tory Burch, fashion designer and founder of the Tory Burch Foundation. Muna Sukhtian, board chair of Microfund for Women in Jordan received the Georgetown University Ambassadors Award.
The Yunus Centre said that the event was attended by about 400 guests, including ambassadors, entrepreneurs, university teachers and researchers from about 25 countries.
Clinton said she had seen Grameen Bank’s work first-hand.
"How women have become self-reliant and secured their own safety and empowerment is unprecedented," she said. "Prof Yunus has taken his work beyond the women of Bangladesh and spread it across the world."
Yunus said the recognition comes at a time when Grameen is celebrating its 50th anniversary and the award will send a huge message of encouragement to the “Grameen family” in Bangladesh.
The Nobel laureate highlighted the ways women have built their own lives with microcredit.
“You will no longer see a shy, silent, poor woman," he said. "You will see confident women who speak about their own problems and needs. Their words carry weight, because they run their own bank. They own Grameen Bank."
Yunus said the next generation must create jobs rather than create them, “We are not job seekers, we are job givers.”
Announcing the establishment of Grameen University to “prepare students as entrepreneurs”, he said: "The purpose of education is to make people creative and enterprising.”
Georgetown University President Eduardo M Penalver, Bangladesh Ambassador to the United States Tareq Md Ariful Islam, and Yunus Centre Executive Director Lamiya Morshed were present at the event.
The award ceremony concluded with a performance by Yunus’s daughter, opera singer Monica Yunus.