Globalisation and its Discontents

01 May 2002
Globalisation and its Discontents
Globalisation and its Discontents
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'Bono has changed the minds of people you would not believe,' ProfessorJeffrey Sachs.

'Bono has changed the minds of people you would not believe,' said ProfessorJeffrey Sachs, speaking to a Dublin conference on Globalisation. 'He callsme morning, noon and night for that last piece of data.'

Sachs, a Harvard academic and economic adviser to governments in fivecontinents, argues that if the world's richest countries were to sacrificeone cent in every $10 to fund primary health in the third world, eightmillion lives would be saved every year.

In a lecture on "Globalisation and its Discontents" to members of theInstitute of European Affairs, Sachs (pictured left with Bono) said theextent of recent economic growth in the most prosperous parts of the worldhad made the alleviation of world poverty possible for the first time.Dividing the world according to economic progress, Prof Sachs said at least1.5 billion people were living in areas where practically no economic growth had been achievedin the past 20 years. In Africa, he said, per capita income had, on average,declined over the period.

Among the reasons for this, the professor said, was the extreme poverty trapin which many of these countries find themselves.

"There is no margin above survival," he said, adding that some populationssimply do not eat enough to be productive, never mind attract foreign directinvestment. Difficult physical environments are also a factor. "It is noaccident that Afghanistan is in chaos," he said. "It is so remote that ithas not had economic development for centuries."

Prof Sachs said the richest 6 per cent of the world had become so"fantastically rich" within the past few years, that a collective aid effortcould actually be effective in alleviating world poverty. It was for thisreason that he had chosen to leave his position at Harvard and become aspecial UN adviser on the poverty issue, he said.

Prof Sachs believes that if 0.7 per cent of GNP in rich countries could bediverted to the poorest parts of the world, entire polulations could becomehealthy, educated and skilled. "I thought it was a good shot to give KofiAnnan a hand with all of this," he said. "We could makea huge difference."

The professor's lecture also paid tribute to the work of Bono in fightingglobal poverty and focusing attention on world debt. He said that if Bonowas not the world's most important politician, he was "definitelynumber two".
"He is so incredibly serious and consequential about this, which is why hemakes a difference."

"He calls me morning, noon and night for that last piece of data. He haschanged things in Washington unbelievably - he has changed the minds ofpeople you would never believe could be changed."

More on the campaign to cancel the debts of the poorest countries here
www.jubileeusa.org
www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk

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