Bangladesh's Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank have been awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Prize to Yunus and Grameen Bank for their efforts to create economic and social development from below. Yunus's bank gives loans to poor people without any financial security. He developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty.
Lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty; development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights believe the people in the Nobel Prize Committee.
The Nobel Peace Prize is the name of one of five Nobel Prizes bequested by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.
The Peace Prize is awarded annually in Oslo, Norway, unlike the prizes in economics, physics, chemistry, physiology, medicine and literature, which are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Last year's winners of the Peace Nobel Prize were The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Mohamed ElBaradei (Egypt) "for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way".