World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Wednesday that globalization must be ‘inclusive and sustainable’ if it is to help combat crushing poverty around the world.
In a speech at the National Press Club, marking his first 100 days in office, Zoellick said the World Bank should seek to foster such goals while guarding environmental protections.
Leading advocacy groups appeared to generally welcome Zoellick’s remarks.
– President Zoellick understands that the Bank’s raison d’être (eksistensberettigelse) is to fight poverty and he has put out a comprehensive blue print to making it happen, said Bernice Romero, Oxfam’s chief advocacy Director.
6 TEMAER FOR FREMTIDEN
His speech offered a direction for the institution based on six themes, which he will discuss with the Bank’s 185 shareholder countries at meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington next week.
The themes include sharpening the focus on combating poverty in poor countries, addressing the needs of states emerging from conflict, strengthening support for the Arab world, and stepping up assistance to emerging economies that include powerhouses like China, India and Brazil.
BÆREDYGTIG VÆKST
His speech also broke from the past by acknowledging that the Bank needs to step up its role in helping to develop an international framework for climate change and ensuring that countries are able to grow while also protecting their environment.
He embraced the UN Millennium Development Goals… as ‘our goals’ and made it clear they could not be achieved without many billions (milliarder) of dollars in extra aid. He added that, in addition to social development, the poorest countries needed help to build infrastructure for higher growth.
Zoellick urged wealthy nations to commit themselves to an ambitious increase in the amounts of money to help the world’s poorest countries.
ALLE SKAL NYDE GODT AF GLOBALISERINGEN
Zoellick said 70 percent of the world’s poor lived in countries that were prospering, and that aid was needed to help them deal with environmental problems, energy shortages and other internal problems that bred instability.
He noted that one of his biggest challenges was to raise money from donor nations over the next three years for the 81 poorest countries, defined as those with a per-capita income of roughly less than $1,000.
– It is vital that the World Bank and the IMF shows that multilateralism can work much more effectively, he said.
He added that while globalization offered tremendous opportunities to all countries, the accompanying dangers of exclusion, grinding poverty and environmental damage for rural and indigenous populations, particularly in Africa, could not be ignored.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
