When Mohammed Yunus, or more famously revered as the “Banker to the Poor,” shared the $1.4 million Nobel Peace prize two years ago for championing the idea of microcredit, the fact that Yunus’ economic proposal was older than himself never surfaced.

Yunus rightly deserved the prize. But his ideas came from a much older man whose continual efforts and failures molded Yunus’ thinking.

Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan, consequently known as the “Hero of the Poor,” was born in 1914 in the midst of colonial British India. After attending Cambridge University and Michigan State University, he joined the highly coveted Indian Civil Service in 1936. After a few years serving, however, he came to realize that, despite his “superman-like” power and authority, he had no influence in assisting common people. As he said, “I realized that if I did not escape while I was young and vigorous, I will forever remain in the trap, and terminate as a bureaucratic big wig.”

Disillusioned, he resigned in 1945 to take “a different kind of apprenticeship.”

Fluent in Urdu, Bengali, English, Arabic, Persian, Pali, Hindi, and Sanskrit, Khan traveled to Bangladesh and all over Pakistan with the hopes of brewing economic solutions.

His two major projects came to life in Bangladesh and Orangi, Pakistan. Khan became the chairman of the Comilla Rural Academy of Pakistan (in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh) and the Orangi Pilot Project (in Karachi). A model of rural development, the purpose of these projects was to vastly advance healthcare, sanitation and education in areas without the money or means to do so.

Here’s a rundown of Akthar’s work, based on a Pakistani interview conducted with him shortly before his death:

On the Orangi Pilot Project:

Orangi is Asia’s largest slum, a mass of over 1 million squatters. In 1980, the government refused to recognize Orangi as a city, and subsequently refused to install a sewerage system. Khan propelled an idea for its citizens to build their own system.

In 1980, when the idea was conceived, the people of Orangi faced serious water logging and sanitation problems, causing a typhoon of disease. Khan spent six month in Orangi listening to its residents, understanding their qualms before launching the project to address the problems. Now, 18 years later, about 90 percent of the over one million residents of Orangi, living in 110 settlements have built their own sanitation system with an investment of nearly Rs. 75 million of their own money. The OPP did not do it, the people did it themselves with technical assistance and mobilization support from the OPP at a cost of less than Rs. 1,000 per family - one-tenth of what it would cost for the government to do it. It was a self-managed, self-financed and self-maintained project under the leadership of community activists. One consequence of the success is that the infant mortality rate in Orangi went down from 130 in 1994 to 37 in 1991. A process is now in place for people to improve their income, housing, education and health through their own initiative and they are succeeding in doing so. Most significantly, what has been done in Orangi is now being replicated elsewhere.

Dr. Khan was most adamant that the success of Orangi was due to the methodology used, not the genius of the personality involved. The people of Orangi achieved success because they helped themselves rather than wait for handouts or for outsiders to come and do it for them, becoming dependent in the process.

On the Comilla Experiment:

Bengalis traditionally produced 20-30 maunds of rice per acre. Under the Comilla experiment, they started to produce upward of 45 maunds per acre. Four Japanese farmers were brought to the Comilla Academy and were each given 1.5 acres of land to cultivate.

Their yield was 60 maunds per acre as compared to 80 maunds per acre per year in their own country. However, with irrigation and three crops - which is possible in Bangladesh - Bengali farmers could easily produce 200 maunds in each acre every year and the country could export huge quantities of rice. The core programmes of the Comilla experiment began to be replicated in 417 thanas in the early 1960s.

On Bangladesh:
According to Khan, the best thing that happened to Bangladesh was its liberation. “The country has a bright future. It has made significant strides in reducing birth rates and it has also unleashed the creativity of its women. Bangladesh has one culture, one language, no serious ethnic problems and a greater social cohesion. Bangladeshis are also not wasting their energy and resources in attempts to recreate the Khilafat and fight India. Bengali nationalism is Bangladesh’s biggest strength.” However, the widespread corruption, Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan added, must be of serious concern.

On the Future of Pakistan:
Khan said, Pakistan has serious problems - ethnic tension, feudalism, corruption - to name a few. The basis of the creation of Pakistan is religion, but the communality of the religion could not keep Pakistan together. A sense of nationalism is more important than commonality of religion for a nation, and, unfortunately, there is no one Pakistani nationalism. More seriously, Pakistanis are unnecessarily nostalgic about the glory days of the Muslim rule over much of the world and are trying to recreate the Khilafat - although Kemal Ataturk shunned the idea decades ago. For the sake of the future of Pakistan, the people of Pakistan must give up its hostility toward India, which is the outgrowth of the two-nation theory, and bring about real equality among provinces. The Sri Lankans, Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan argued, are suffering because of such two nation theory.

On Foreign Aid:
Quoting Sheikh Saadi, he said, the pleasure of being in the heaven is equivalent to the torture of hell if you go there with the help of your neighbour. Using foreign aid you can create a colossus with the feet of clay. The Diwani must not be for sale - Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan stated, with a poignant reference to the relationship between the Nawabs of Bengal and the British East India Company. He had very strong comments on the dependence on foreign aid and foreign experts, and he admitted that the Comilla project suffered because of its use of foreign support. In Orangi, he had scrupulously adhered to a principle of not using foreign money and utilizing people coming primarily from the local community. He avoided hiring staff from the elite class.

On his Regrets:
Khan regretted that although his work received widespread international recognition and is being replicated in many places, people in high places of Pakistan did not pay it much attention. No Pakistani leader or high government official ever came to see his project except for the Chief Secretary of the Government of Sindh, only a friend.