'World Bank must take bold steps to help end poverty '
WASHINGTON: With more than a billion people in the world living on
less than $1.25 per day, World Bank (WB) Group, President, Jim Yong Kim
today said that extreme poverty was "the defining moral issue of our
time," and he described how a new World Bank Group strategy would
realign the global institution to help end poverty by 2030 and boost
shared prosperity.
Speaking at the George Washington University on the eve of the World
Bank Group and IMF Annual Meetings, Kim said the Bank must be bold and
not be afraid to take "smart risks" to support projects that have the
potential to transform a country or a region.
Kim pledged that he would direct more funding to fragile and
conflict-affected states.
He said he hoped to increase the share of IDA core financing - the
Bank's fund for the poorest - to fragile and conflict-affected states by
about 50 percent in the next three years. He also said that the IFC, the
Bank's private sector arm, would also increase funding by 50 percent
over three years for low-income and fragile states.
The IFC increase could amount to more than an $800 million increase
over three years; the IDA amount could not be determined until countries
made pledges later in the year.
Kim specifically called on the international community to give
greater support to Lebanon, which has allowed more than 760,000 Syrian
refugees to settle since fighting broke out in Syria more than two and a
half years ago. "We need to do much more or we risk catastrophe in
Lebanon," Kim said.
Kim said the new World Bank Group strategy - the first ever to bring
together the entire organisation, which includes the Bank, IFC, and the
Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, or MIGA, which provides
political risk insurance - would work toward a common purpose.
"For the World Bank Group, our strategy is based on the entire
organisation working and pulling together," said Kim. "Our strategy also
forces us to be selective - first, choosing our priorities and then,
abandoning those activities that are not."
Kim highlighted three elements of the strategy:
"First, we will partner with the private sector to use their
expertise and capital to fight poverty. This is particularly important
to create good jobs for the poor.
"Second, we will increase our commitment to fragile and
conflict-affected states, which will require us to be bolder, take more
risks, and commit more resources.
"And third, we will be as ambitious as possible on issues that are of
global importance, including investing in women and girls and climate
change. Our response to climate change, for instance, must be bold
enough to match the scope of the problem."
Kim called for a social movement to end poverty, and said that
interest in the issue was coalescing around the globe.
"Just six months ago, the board of governors for the World Bank Group
laid a foundation for a social movement by endorsing our two goals and
declaring that we can end extreme poverty by 2030. Now we are seeing
interest from all corners.
Political leaders, including President Obama and UK Prime Minister
David Cameron, are calling for an end to poverty.
Faith-based leaders are calling for an end to poverty. The One
campaign, Oxfam, Save the Children, and RESULTS and many other civil
society groups are calling for an end to poverty. And young people -
people like yourselves here at the George Washington University -- are
calling for an end to poverty," said Kim.
Kim described his attendance at the Global Poverty Project's Global
Citizens Festival in New York's Central Park recently, and encouraged
listeners to his speech to log on to the Global Poverty Project website,
zeropoverty2030.org, and sign a petition to end poverty in a generation.
"This is the defining moral issue of our time. Our goals are clear.
End extreme poverty by 2030. Share prosperity with the bottom 40
percent, and share it with future generations. We have an opportunity to
bend the arc of history and commit ourselves to do something that other
generations have only dreamed of," Kim said.
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