BONO in 2008 //

Articles

What would Bono Do? A Bold Plan for Ending World Poverty
The Ottawa Citizen, May 22, 2005

Robert Hilburn

Marc Kielburger

The latest book from acclaimed economist Jeffrey Sachs begins in an overcrowded Malawi hospital. “The posted occupancy rate is 150 beds. There are 450 people in the ward,” he reports from the African nation’s largest facility. “This is a dying chamber where three-quarters or more of the people this day are in late-stage AIDS without medicines. Family members sit by the bed, swabbing dried lips and watching their loved ones die." And then, from Sachs, an admonishment: “Each of these patients could rise from the deathbed but for want of a dollar a day ... the problem is simply that the world has seen fit to look away.”

For 10 years I have worked in many of the poorest places on Earth. In my travels with Free the Children, I have witnessed suffering that defies description. Children succumb to malaria for want of a few inexpensive pills. AIDS strikes mothers and fathers while their sons and daughters stand by helplessly. Malnourishment condemns young and old to an early grave. Like Sachs, I have been humbled by the dignity, resilience and courage of those in the most desperate of conditions. Like him, I share a certainty about what impoverished communities can accomplish if given a little assistance. Tragically, too often help is not forthcoming.

Extreme poverty is a merciless killer that stalks one-sixth of the world’s population. In a time of unprecedented prosperity, more than a billion people struggle to survive on less than a dollar a day. “Every morning our newspapers could report, ’More than 20,000 people perished yesterday of extreme poverty,’” Sachs observes. But these deaths rarely make the news. Consequently, the world’s wealthiest countries are not often exposed to the brutal reality of global inequality, nor do they recognize the urgent need for action.

Sachs hopes to change this with The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. Sachs, who Time calls “the world’s best-known economist,” is director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and special adviser to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. He is renowned for his work as an adviser to governments of impoverished countries around the world. Drawing on extensive experience and keen powers of analysis, he offers nothing less than a blueprint for eliminating extreme poverty by 2025.

Hailed by the Economist as a “mixture of personal memoir, economics textbook and development manifesto,” the book is all of this and more. Sachs has crafted a compassionate and compelling call to action that challenges each of us to recognize that we have the power to build a better world. The message he shares is profound: We could be the first generation to live in a world in which everyone’s most basic needs are met. The End of Poverty should be required reading for all Canadians -- especially those in the Prime Minister’s Office.

In essence, Sachs’ strategy involves “scaling up” investments in people and infrastructure to give impoverished communities the tools to achieve sustainable development. International co-operation is crucial, he argues, as is the need for wealthy countries to move beyond platitudes and follow through on repeated promises to deliver more help. Meanwhile, he says, poorer countries must “take ending poverty seriously and ... devote a greater share of their national resources to cutting poverty rather than to war, corruption and political infighting.”

Sachs argues that targeted investments and donor aid must be backed by global policies that cancel debts, lower trade barriers, expand scientific research and protect the environment. He proposes that the UN co-ordinate efforts within the framework of a strategy that aims to reduce poverty, disease and environmental degradation by 2015. The international effort would be outlined in a Millennium Declaration and agreed to by every single UN member.

It sounds like quite a challenge. Fortunately, Sachs is brutally frank about the cost -- less than one per cent of the income of the rich world. It may come as a shock to some, but ending extreme poverty doesn’t require new financial commitments, only that nations honour previous promises to devote 0.7 per cent of national income -- 70 cents of every 100 dollars -- to development assistance.

As Sachs argues convincingly, the cost of action is tiny compared to the cost of inaction. “To do less is to announce brazenly to a large part of the world, ’You count for nothing,’” he writes. “We should not be surprised, then, if years later the rich reap the whirlwind of that heartless response.” Clearly, it is in everyone’s best interests to act.

Unfortunately, despite our pride in a long history of international engagement, Canada is not living up to commitments. More than three decades after Lester B. Pearson proposed an international benchmark of 0.7 per cent, Canada spends less than 0.3 per cent of GDP on aid. Canada’s aid-to-GDP ratio is about half of what it was 30 years ago.

Recent promises to increase aid spending by eight per cent a year until 2010 may sound impressive, but they don’t bring us anywhere close to the 0.7-per-cent commitment. Even if the government follows through with its plan, it would amount to less than half of what Canadian governments have been promising to deliver for more than 30 years. In a country that places a premium on justice, equality and compassion, this is nothing short of appalling. Yet, as Sachs reminds readers, the fact that Canada, like so many other wealthy countries, has repeatedly failed to deliver is “not cause for despair, but instead a basis for even greater social mobilization.”

We have a historic opportunity to end extreme poverty in the world. Canadians must mobilize to ensure our government honours its commitments and acts on its rhetoric. Bono, U2’s compassionate lead singer, has chided Prime Minister Paul Martin for failing to honour his promise to reach the 0.7-per-cent target -- now we must follow his lead. More than a year ago the prime minister publicly declared that reaching the target is “our responsibility.” He has since argued that the country is not in a position to agree to a timetable for meeting this responsibility. With our international reputation, self-respect and future well-being on the line, this is just not acceptable.

Canada is well placed to become an inspiration to the international community. However, as Sachs argues, to be effective we must “scale up” and meet the 0.7-per-cent target by 2015. We must “untie” aid so that it meets the needs of recipients, not donors. We must expand the depth and scope of our engagement in the world’s poorest countries, and encourage other wealthy nations to do the same. We must champion the plight of the world’s poor and promote international co-operation on issues pertaining to sustainable development. Canada aims to move in this direction, but we simply are not doing enough, or moving quickly enough to do it. With every day that passes, upward of 20,000 people die.

If we are to be the generation that ends extreme poverty, we must each commit to making it happen. “In the end,” Sachs writes, “it comes back to us, as individuals.” If, as he proposes, ending poverty is “the great opportunity of our time” we must act without delay. It’s time to choose to live in a world in which no one dies for want of a dollar a day.

Marc Kielburger has travelled to more than 30 developing countries. He is chief executive director of Free the Children, the world’s largest network of children helping children through education.