JAMES D. WOLFENSOHN: “SECURING THE 21st CENTURY”
Dear readers,
Below we give extracts from the address titled “Securing the 21st Century” of President of the World Bank Group James D. Wolfensohn. It is noteworthy that the leader of the World Bank Group prioritized environmental safety and protecting our planet through better stewardship of the environment, scaling up the fight against poverty, at which the improvement of irrigation and land development is a single striking example of achieving human welfare, and, finally, educating youth with a view to give them an opportunity to solve all problems themselves.
It is obvious that all these directions agree with the objectives of strengthening and developing our water sector and land reclamation, and involving youth in this development.
I think that since the President of the World Bank Group came to this, we should accept his proposal and intensify activities in this direction together with the IFAS.
Prof. V.A. Dukhovny
Chief Editor of the ICWC Press-Release
If we want stability on our planet, we must fight to end poverty. Since the time of the Bretton Woods Conference, through the Pearson Commission, the Brandt Commission, and the Brundtland Commission, through to statements of our leaders at the 2000 Millennium Assembly - and today - all confirm that the eradication of poverty is central to stability and peace.
It is still the challenge of our time.
We Can Meet the Challenge
We know that development works. In the last four decades, life expectancy in developing countries has increased by 20 years and adult illiteracy has been halved to 22 percent.
At a conference in Shanghai that we organized with the Chinese government earlier this year, developing countries shared their experience of what works and what does not. Over 100 case studies showed that we can accelerate development rapidly if poor people are treated as agents of change, not objects of charity.
Next year we will meet at the UN to review progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals—with 10 short years to go until 2015. Thanks to China and India, we know that the overall objective of cutting poverty in half, will likely be met. But we also already know that most of the other goals, for most countries, will not be met.
As I see it, there are three urgent priorities:
- Protecting the planet--through better stewardship of our environment;
- Scaling up on effective poverty reduction; and
- Educating our youth differently for the 21st century - and giving them hope.
Let me touch on each of these briefly.
Protecting the Planet: Environmental Sustainability
First, protecting our planet.
We must promote growth with a full awareness of the natural systems on which all life depends. Economic growth does not have to come at the expense of the natural environment. They work together.
People in the rich world have overused and wasted tremendous amounts of energy. The average US citizen or Canadian uses nearly 9 times more energy than the average person in China - 12 times more than the average African. And as the climate changes, it is the poor in small island states, Latin America, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa who will be the most vulnerable to ravages of drought and floods.
Forests are cut down relentlessly. Of the world’s species, a quarter of the mammals, and a third of the fish are either vulnerable or in danger of immediate extinction. Ninety percent of the big fish in the oceans have already been killed off.
Environmental challenges affect all of us, but poor people are particularly vulnerable. We must give higher priority to renewable energy. New and clean technologies can allow the poor to achieve the benefits of development without having to face the same environmental costs the developed world has experienced.
Scaling Up the Fight Against Poverty
Half the people in the world live on less than $2 a day. A fifth live on less than a $1 a day. Over the next three decades, two billion more people will be added to the global population – 97 percent of them in developing countries, most of them born into poverty.
Over the past decade, a quiet revolution has taken place in the effectiveness of development assistance: with countries taking ownership of their own programs; with aid being focused on good policies; and with increasing coordination among donors.
In 1996 while visiting China, I met a woman from the Loess Plateau where we supported an agricultural project in that arid, mountainous region. Living in a cave, she had no power or running water, and had little prospect of improving her life.
This spring, I had an emotional reunion with her and she told me about how her life had improved, how she now has two caves, doors, windows, water and power. How she had bought her son a motorcycle. How her son had found a wife. How she was now looking to educate her daughter.
She was one of three million people who found hope through a series of 32 similar projects in the plateau completed over 10 years. Projects that were carried out by thousands of individuals with spades literally turning rocky land into arable soil. The area is no longer dry and threatening, it is lush and full of crops and animals.
We and our Chinese partners provided management for 10 years, repeating the process while benefiting from lessons learned. These lessons are now being implemented elsewhere in China for the benefit of millions of people living on marginal lands.
Youth and Education
Almost half the world’s population is under the age of 24. Half of the 14,000 new HIV infections that occur each day are in young people aged 15-24. More than 50 percent of young people of working age cannot find a job. With alarming frequency, youth are becoming involved in conflict—either as victims or, just as tragically, soldiers.
We must engage young people in finding the solution. Last month, when I met with youth leaders from 83 countries in Sarajevo, I was struck by their genuine desire to build a better future of harmony, respect, and peace. The young Bosnians, Serbs, and Croats I met were eager to put the country’s past behind them. But they felt it was the adults who were holding them back. As they did in Paris the year before, they told me they are not the future – they are the now.
We must support our youth through education to create their better world. And it begins with early childhood development - because we know that a child’s future is largely determined in the first six years of life.
Children in developed and developing countries also need to learn more about each other. I fear that today there is too much education for hate that will not be reversed in later years.
Providing children with a quality education is not only the right thing to do, it also has a huge development impact. If the 115 million children now out of school were to enroll, some 7 million new HIV infections could be avoided over the next decade.
Global Leadership for the 21st Century
We know what needs to be done. Why is it not happening?
The full text of the address is available at: www.cawater-info.net/news/10-2004/25_e.htm
NEW PUBLICATIONS
The followings were published in the ICWC Training Center Publications series:
- issue No.7 “Sustainable Groundwater Management: Concepts and Instruments”, 72 pages.
- issue No.8 “Strategic Planning and Sustainable Management of Water Resources Development in Central Asia”, 116 pages. A CD with English version of the report and previous issues of the series is attached to the brochure.
The followings were published in the series of Bulletins of the Information-Consulting Center (ICC) for the European Commission’s Sixth Framework Program (FP6) in Central Asia:
- issue No.6 “Thematic priority 5: Food Safety and Quality”, 32 pages.
- issue No.7 “Human Resources and Mobility”, 21 pages.
|