building a movement to end poverty - by jim yong kim _ foreign policy

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Sunday, August 18, 2013 Fol l ow

Building a Movement to End PovertyWorld Bank president to private sector: Take your money off the sidelines.

BY JIM YONG KIM | JUNE 26, 2013

We are closer than ever before to ending global poverty. In a little more than two decades, from 1990 to today,

the proportion of people living in extreme poverty (surviving on less than $1.25 per day) has fallen from 40 to 20

percent around the world. During that period, more than 700 million people lifted themselves above that

threshold.

We are on the right track, but we need to do more. Poverty is falling, but it is not falling fast enough. Moreover,

in certain fast-growing developing countries, income inequality has widened considerably in recent years. As aresult, the World Bank Group has adopted two new goals: end extreme poverty by 2030 and boost shared

prosperity by maximizing income growth for the poorest 40 percent in every country. Two key groups can play a

central role to help achieve these goals: the private sector and civil society.

The private sector has an essential role to play if we are to end poverty by 2030. Over the past two decades,

poverty reduction has been driven by the creation of millions of new jobs -- and 90 percent of new jobs come

from the private sector. We also need the private sector to meet emerging economies' demand for infrastructure

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investment. Total foreign assistance for all countries stands at $125 billion a year, a substantial sum but still far

short of what is needed. Over the next five years,for example, India has a $1 trillion gap in infrastructurefinancing, meaning that all the foreign assistance in the world couldn't meet its infrastructure needs.

That means we must leverage precious aid dollars to spur new private investment in the developing world. The

potential is enormous. There are trillions of dollars invested in low-yielding assets in high-income countries,

such as U.S. Treasuries or German Bunds. Imagine what could be achieved if even a small portion of that monewere instead invested in developing countries, where potential rates of return are far higher, and where

partnerships between the public and private sectors could bring crucial infrastructure and other goods and

services to those who need them most.

The World Bank Group is helping governments improve their business climates and attract higher levels of

private investment. Last year, our private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, invested a record

$20.4 billion in 103 developing countries, supporting 2.5 million jobs. Returns on these investments have been

impressive: The averageannual return on IFC's equity investments around the world over the last 15 years hasbeen 20 percent.

My message to private sector leaders is this: Take your money off the sidelines. Use it to earn good returns in

developing countries, while lifting millions out of poverty. The World Bank Group can help.

In building a movement to end global poverty, the other key component is civil society.Civil society plays a vitalrole not only in delivering services to the poor but also in building movements.

Many know the historic outcome of the global fight against AIDS. Between 2000 and 2012, the number of peopl

in the developing world taking life-extending antiretroviral medication grew from 50,000 to 9 million -- thanks

in large part to U.S. bipartisan support for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief(PEPFAR). But few

people know that the origins of the AIDS fight can be traced back to the late 1980s, when a group of activists

(some of them forming the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP) launched a series of high-profile

demonstrations and also worked behind the scenes to address the scientific and political challenges involved in

combating AIDS.

These activists helped bring about the adoption of the Food and Drug Administration's Priority Reviewin 1992,

which expedited access to medicines from the private sector and saved thousands of lives. In 1993, the average

standard FDA approval took 27 months. By 1995, the average FDA Priority Reviewlasted only six months.

That is the power of civil society, which has the ability to transform global consciousness around the world's

greatest challenges. And that is the power I hope civil society will bring to the challenge of ending poverty. The

World Bank Group will continue to partner with other multilateral organizations and civil society to generate

global commitment and a sense of urgency for these goals.

We need the private sector to scale up investment in developing countries, to support job-creation, and strong,


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sustainable economic growth. We also need it to start thinking about a double bottom line -- the powerful

possibility of both making a profit for your business and also being able to tell your children and your

grandchildren that you are part of the movement to end poverty. This is part of a trend in the business world

that we must do everything we can to nurture.

We need NGOs and civil society leaders to catalyze a global movement around ending poverty and building

shared prosperity, focusing the world's attention on the biggest challenge of our time. We need civil societyorganizations to dream beyond their individual mandates -- to show us how their work is critical to the larger

goal of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity.

All of us, whether in government, civil society, or the private sector, have a stake in delivering solutions to end

global poverty. That is why I would like to ask those in the private sector, government, and in civil society, to fin

new ways to work more effectively together.

For far too long, an unstated feeling of distrust has cloaked the broad discussions about new directions in

development. Those in the private sector often don't trust NGOs. Those in NGOs often don't trust the private

sector. If we are to bend the arc of history toward justice, and if we are to rid the world of the scourge of extreme

poverty, we must think strategically and cooperatively. Foreign assistance is critical and will become even more

important going forward. But it must work to leverage investments that both improve domestic capacity to

generate tax revenue and enhance conditions for further private investment if we are going to have any hope of

ending extreme poverty.

There is no movement yet to end poverty. That is my challenge to governments, civil society, and the private

sector. Together, we must rise to the occasion and create a groundswell of momentum toward the world we all

want -- one free of extreme poverty, with shared prosperity for all.

Save big when you subscribe to FPAlex Wong/Getty Images

Jim Yong Kim is president of the World Bank Group.

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Conversation on FP.com

schneibster

A respectable carrot, sir. I cannot say a word against you.

To those who would question, I say my spear (a stick in your milquetoast superstitions) will add urgency to the matter. I will die before my spea

can be wielded, but it will live after me and the longer the nastier. The ultra rich must use their wealth for the common good; we allowed them t

accumulate it for that cause, and they said that's what they would do. If they do not then we should take up our spears and take the wealth

back. Who can say "no" to a billion people?

Get to work, rich people. Accumulating it was only your first task. Now it's time to use it to make this a Star Trek society. You said you would,

and I'm telling you we'll take it back if you don't. Get to work.

schneibster

You wanted it.

Just like all of us.

And now you owe.

Just like all of us.

nodatanolatency

Respected Sir,

Please excuse me in advance for using language for communication and not communication for language.

Making complex more complex is easy.

Making complex simple is incredibly difficult.

Let me once again provide you with the single most important thing you ought to know:

- Poverty is not a geographically isolated problem.

- Poverty exists universally for the same reason.

I don't want anything in return for giving you or your staff early access to my findings and reports.

I have tried to gain your attention numerous times to engage with me directly or indirectly. Same is true for United Nations, Acumen Fund and

Seven Fund.


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Please ask a junior or senior member of staff to connect with me for just an hour long call. Or have them initiate a conversation with me.

I know your staff doesn't have a background in online distributed systems, I do.Similarly your staff is not using ground breaking technology to

hunt for solutions. I am.

Does World Bank want people to wait an entire generation before they will ... excuse my french... have the guts to send an email or make a

call?

Sixty minutes is all I am asking.

If that's too much, send me your questions that are keeping you in a chaotic understanding.

Choice is yours. Before you make that choice, please remember: choice is a conflict..

On my end, I have considerably sped up efforts to publish the model very soon.

Nonetheless, I plan to keep connecting with you for a long time to come.

Farmfield7777

As The World Understand The Pressure From The Suffering Of Our Poor Brother, So We Understand The Rights To Influence Our Mind With

People Living In Poverty On Hardship Immersion Sacrifice, Thus, The Chance "To END GLOBAL POVERTY" Of Hope For Crowning This

Serenity With Medicine, Psychology Matter Etc.. With The World Era Of Morality As Fact Evidence Of Great Thinking From The Shoulder Of

Our Arm To Behave A Gender-God Thought, For Our Head Son With His God Head To Our Soul Mind Head. Thanks These Reading Time, As

You Spend With Me. ..., DEUNE7777

EndellMaynard

We are no way close to ending World Poverty due to the simple fact of avoiding the extremes of a holostic Trade embargo that ensures that

free trade liberates the indebted economies.

How can I say this so boldly when food supplies and medical aid are expidited so feverishly to the disaster stricken economies there is so muc

planing and board room meeting to ensure that the elite economies and industrial gianyt respond to charity on a global level.?

I can safely say this due to the fact that adstract poverty on the whole especialy ural African poverty hasn't been the priority the loop hole of

corruption and greed even social and racial perference has dominated the dispersement of critical relief to the those who are really poorly

inclined /declined from the simple and basic rights of sharing in national growth and development to inhance the quality of their lives.

UN Funds and grants never ever reach it's intended destinations due to political pressures from illegal governance and illegal business practices

worldwide.

If their is an international agency or audit commite this looting on a governmental level can be avoided but excuse me their are contingencies in

place to monitor and ensure that funds and grants even food and medical aid are legaly despatched and put to it's intended use.

Looking at the resources (wet or dry) natural or refined across the globe there is surplus quantities amoung the developed and structured

economies to blanket and combat World Poverty to a zero effect.

Why are the distinguish diplomatc and governmental criminals withholding and raping the poor with their corrupt and unjust business pratices for

political favours.

Is their a movement and a cause to keep certain economies under a particular economic and currency rating will the monopoly ever be broken.

TO: Gevena, President and Vice President , Ban Ki Moon,,Mario Draghi ,EC President ,Washington Mayor, London Mayor, BRIC excutive

board, Gerald Flurry, Toyoko Mayor, Bejing Mayor, Berlin Mayor, Wasington Press Coresspondant Jay Carey Moscow Mayor, Toronto

Mayor,the Cabinets of the G8/20.


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building a movement to end poverty - by jim yong kim _ foreign policy

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