BRAC, a Bangladesh-based non-government organisation, has been ranked the top NGO in the world in 2018.

BRAC took the top spot for the third year in a row as part of the 2018 Top 500 NGOs World Rankings published by NGO Advisor, an independent media organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland.

“We are deeply honoured to be ranked as the top global NGO for the third consecutive year,” said BRAC Founder and Chairperson Sir Fazle Hasan Abed.

“This accolade belongs to all BRAC staff for championing the BRAC values of integrity, innovation, inclusiveness and effectiveness in everything we do. Our over 110 million programme participants worldwide, who play an active role in their own transformative journeys, are the real winners. We are inspired by their resilience and spirit to continue striving for a just and equitable world,” Sir Abed added.

NGO Advisor releases the Top 500 NGOs World Rankings every year to highlight the outstanding organisations in the non-profit sector. It conducts exhaustive research, evaluates hundreds of NGOs against a rigorous set of criteria, and ranks these organisations according to a robust methodology. This marks the fourth time in last five years that BRAC has earned the number one ranking.

“BRAC goes beyond the traditional NGO definition and has a unique, integrated model to drive positive social change, including development programmes, social enterprises, investments and university. 2017 has been a landmark year for BRAC as we have also extended our work in humanitarian crisis management to support almost a million forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals, or Rohingyas, coming into southern Bangladesh,” he further said. 

“We will continue to evolve and focus on a humanitarian development approach, to maximise the impact for both displaced people and host communities. In the long run, we aim to leverage our expertise to support people in crises anywhere in the world," the BRAC executive director added. 

“For any organisation to be a part of the top 100, not to mention the top ten, they need to score strongly in the three pillars of our methodology: innovation, impact, and governance. BRAC continues to chart new territory in all three, pioneering creative, cost-effective, and sustainable interventions that reach millions of the most vulnerable people worldwide," Jean-Christophe Nothias, editor-in-chief of NGO Advisor, said in a statement.

BRAC is one of the few development organisations based in the global south that operates worldwide. Founded in Bangladesh in 1972, the NGO is now active in 11 countries, running programmes in microfinance, education, healthcare, legal rights, girls’ empowerment, and agriculture, socially responsible businesses, a bank, a university, and one of the world’s largest mobile money platforms -- bKash.