Just as it was the task of the 19th century to abolish slaveryand the 20th century to eradicate fascism (although both of thesephenomena linger in the shadows) so it may be the responsibility ofthis era to bring an end to world poverty.
The challenging idea which emerged from an internationalconference in Shanghai, China, this week was that this objective maybe more than just a pipe dream. Look at China, delegates were told,where up to 400 million people have been brought above the poverty-line in the last 20 years.
The man who kept saying this was the same individual who had theidea for the conference in the first place, the president of theWorld Bank, James Wolfensohn. Listening to former investment bankerspraising self-professed communists is not an everyday experience,but Wolfensohn repeatedly spoke at the Shanghai Conference onPoverty Reduction of his admiration for China's economic miracle.
George Bernard Shaw once wrote, "Some men see things as they areand ask why; others dream things that never were and ask why not."The quotation could have been invented with Wolfensohn in mind. TheAustralian-born naturalised American may be in his early 70s but heexudes a youthful enthusiasm for the task of lifting the poor onceand for all out of the doldrums and placing them firmly in theeconomic mainstream.
It's a vision that is shared by Brazil's President Luiz InacioLula da Silva, who has issued a clarion call to world leaders toattend a special summit in New York on September 20th. In animpassioned speech to the Shanghai conference he lambasted developedcountries for their protectionist agricultural subsidies which canmean that farmers get $2 a day for each cow they own, while much ofthe world's population is getting by on less than $1.
The turnout of western leaders for the conference wasdisappointing. It was as if they knew there was not going to be anygood news for them and that, if any of them turned up, he or shewould only catch the flak for the others. It may be different forPresident Lula's September conference. It coincides with the UNGeneral Assembly, so many world leaders will be present in New Yorkin any case.
The Shanghai conference was jointly sponsored by the World Bank,which provides assistance to developing countries, and by theChinese government. Although there was the usual quota of jargon,nevertheless some fundamental messages came through.
One of these was that handouts from the rich countries, althoughhelpful, are not sufficient for poor countries to improve their lot.With proper guidance, leadership and resources, local communitiesthroughout the world can play a major role in their own economic andsocial salvation.
The World Bank has been highlighting specific instances whereimpoverished or hardpressed communities in developing countries havebeen lifting themselves up, not entirely by their own bootstraps butwith a little help from their friends in high places.
One such community is in the Karnataka region of India, whereagricultural methods have been augmented by computer technology. TheBhoomi Project (bhoomi means land in Sanskrit) involves transferringland records from fusty files onto computer. This simple act hasbrought about a minor revolution in the lives of these Indianfarmers. Constant access to land records is required in order tonegotiate loans for seed and other agricultural purposes.
Now, instead of having to make the long and expensive trek to agovernment office in the city or, worse, negotiate locally with acorrupt administrator, farmers can obtain copies of their records atone of the many computer and Internet outlets that are sprouting upthroughout the region, with assistance from the state government andBill Gates's Microsoft company. Farmers can also regularly updatetheir records with the latest crop yields and other data.
The Internet is also a useful guide to weather trends. Technologyalone cannot save people from poverty but, if properly used, it canhelp. In addition to the benefits for farmers, communities involvedin the Bhoomi Project are taking advantage of a number of spin-offs, for example, the presence of a computer with Internet accessin the village means students and others can take classes in newtechnology and families can maintain contact with relatives in otherplaces by e-mail.
For an Irish person, it is difficult to study the Bhoomi Projectwithout being reminded of our own highly successful scheme for ruralelectrification in the middle of the last century, which in its ownway engendered a revolution in rural areas of Ireland.
When James Wolfensohn sees an initiative such as the BhoomiProject he is not content to regard it as a local, regional or evennational success story. He wants to see it replicated in all thecomparable poor areas of the world. Today Karnataka, tomorrowHonduras, this is his Big Idea. It is also clearly the reason why hewas happy for the conference to be held in Shanghai: he sees theChinese as a prime example of people who take an idea, try it outlocally and, if it works, apply it on the largest scale possible.
Another initiative being promoted by the World Bank is theKecamatan Development Project (KDP) in Indonesia. Kecamatan is theIndonesian word for "a cluster of villages". The procedure is asimple one. The bank lends money to the Indonesian government which,in turn, offers it on a competitive basis to groups of villages inone of the country's many underdeveloped areas. Villagers presenttheir projects for consideration by their peers at a districtmeeting and the best plans are approved for financial backing. Thevillagers will make a contribution, usually by supplying labour. Theproject could be something as mundane as building a new, properly-paved road where there has always been a dirt-track, but it can makea huge difference to people's everyday lives. The best Irishparallel would be with the Tidy Towns Competition because you seethe same kind of local pride, initiative and hard work, but with afar bigger funding dimension.
The KDP Project is now in operation on a wide basis in Indonesia.Similar projects are under way in Afghanistan and the Philippines.This is yet another example of what World Bank jargon calls "scaling-up", namely, the application of a workable idea on a larger scale.
Inevitably, there are problems and snags. Corruption is an ever-present danger and, for that reason, every effort is made tominimise bureaucracy and maximise local control. Indeed, just priorto the start of the Shanghai Conference, the World Bank was hit withallegations by an American academic that about $100 billion from itsdevelopment funding over the years has been lost through corruption.Wolfensohn claims the figure is absurd and points to the procedureshis organisation has established in order to eliminate corruption.
Not everyone shares Wolfensohn's admiration of the Chineseleadership, which has been heavily criticised internationally forits human rights record.
Given the amount of money at its disposal, the World Bank couldpotentially exercise leverage on different countries to makeimprovements in human rights, but the organisation steers clear ofthis area which is seen as a political matter and therefore regardedas outside its remit. This is not a perspective calculated to appealto human rights activists and there is a continuing debate on thesubject.
But if China is very far from being a paragon of politicalfreedom, there is no denying its economic and social achievements inrecent decades.
Shanghai is a dazzling showpiece of modern capitalism, ironicallycreated under authoritarian communist auspices. The city skylinedisplays virtually the entire spectrum of modern high-risearchitecture and there is an energy and vitality in the air thatmakes even Manhattan seem sedate.
As our own Sen Lemass said, "a rising tide lifts all boats" andthe poor have benefited from the surge in China's economic fortunes.You need to think big when you have a population of 1.3 billionpeople and the current Chinese leadership has certainly shown itselfcapable of that. While there are other aspects of their policiesthat would certainly not appeal to other countries, one of thepurposes of the Shanghai Conference was to encourage the rest of usto think big also. Eliminate world poverty: why not?
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