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2010 - The Challenges to Global Security: James WOLFENSOHN
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22/12/99
James
WOLFENSOHN PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD BANK
As we prepare to journey into the new millennium, with all its promise of
change yet also its threat of discord, one vital way to further global security
is to stem the rising incidence of global poverty. As we stand on the threshold of a new century we must take stock and ask ourselves some fundamental questions. Will we seize the moment to raise our sights for a better world? Will we begin to judge our efforts not by the prosperity of the few but by the needs of the many? Will we be prepared to hold ourselves accountable, to make the effort necessary to bring about change?
Three billion people today, half the world's population, live on less than $2 a day. By 2025, that figure may have risen to four billion. But poverty is much more than a matter of income alone. The poor seek a sense of well-being which is peace of mind; it is good health, community, and safety. It is choice and freedom as well as a steady source of income.
In the past year, we have learned that the causes of financial crises and poverty are one and the same. Countries may come up with sound fiscal and monetary policy, but if they do not have sound governance, strong anti-corruption measures, a comprehensive legal system which protects human rights, property rights, and contracts one which gives a framework for bankruptcy laws and a predictable tax system operating within an open and regulated financial system, their development is fundamentally flawed and will not last.
What would it really take to put these fundamental building blocks of development in place? First and foremost, it will take real commitment from the leadership of each country, both elected leaders and those with financial power and influence.
It will take a willingness to reform systems of government, regulations, and institutions; it will take a strong support for building capacity; and fighting corruption. And it will need governments to get much closer to the poor. We need global rules and global behaviour. We need a new international development architecture to parallel the new global financial architecture.
A new development regime like this would need the earnest involvement of a true worldwide coalition built on the co-operation of the United Nations, governments, development organisations such as the World Bank, the private sector, and civil society. A coalition between recipients and donors and the citizens of donor countries, a coalition based on results. There must be effective performance in utilising development assistance that is corruption-free and reaching the poor.
It must also be a coalition in which we address head-on the pressing issues of debt relief, of breaking the chains of poverty not just the chains of debt, of making the global trade system more fair and inclusive, of environmental protection. It must also be a coalition that recognises the power of modern research to democratise health to harness new vaccines to eradicate AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and polio.
Lastly it must be a coalition to make the information revolution truly universal, to bridge the growing knowledge gap, for there is no doubt that the technological revolution will have an enormous impact on the substance of development.
We urgently need to forge these coalitions for change so that we can build that new development architecture, and in so doing, create a stable, more equitable world which brings hope to every life, and which ensures a better and more secure world for our children.
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James WOLFENSOHN
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2010
- The Challenges To Global Security | Foreword:
Cliff Beal | King
Abdullah II | Kofi
Annan | Ehud Barak
| Tony Blair | Jacques
Chirac | Bill
Clinton | Sadako
Ogato | James
Orbinski | Romano
Prodi | Lord
Robertson Of Port Ellen | Mary
Robinson | Javier
Solana | Cornelio
Sommaruga | James
Wolfensohn | Postscript:
Edward N. Luttwak | Postscript:
Lawrence Freedman