UN Secretary General Calls for a Fair Chance for the Poor 

Fair changes by the rich will give a fair chance to the poor 

The Guardian, Thursday 21st March 2002

Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General writes in today's Guardian that fair changes by the rich will give a fair chance to the poor. He says that in some countries girls marry young, because their families cannot afford to send them to school, but that this is beginning to change. Families are getting smaller, more women are employed, and have higher incomes. He emphasizes that these benefits will reach far beyond individual girls; they will include lower birth rates, better health practices, fewer children dying in infancy, a more productive labour force. 

In essence, he writes, it was money that made this happen. Money - in the case that he cites - largely from the World Bank. He states: "That is development. It is not abstract. It is real change in the lives of real people eager to improve their own conditions, if only they can get a real chance" Many people are denied this chance - well over a billion people go hungry every night, they do not have safe water to drink. "Development means enabling such people, and another two billion who are only marginally better off, to build themselves a better life"

Kofi Annan explains the background to the UN summit happening at Monterrey and refers to the Millennium Development Goals which were developed eighteen months ago. "Those goals will not be reached without human, natural and, crucially, financial resources" he writes. "The fate of millions of people depends on our getting this right." He emphasizes that the leaders of the developing world who are in Monterrey with heads of state, cabinet members, business leaders, foundation executives and others from the west, are here "not as supplicants but as partners".

He argues that developing countries want a fair chance to trade their way out of poverty - "They know they have to embrace the market, ensure economic stability, collect taxes in a transparent and accountable way, uphold the rule of law and protect property rights" but that they should be able to do so without having to face tariffs and quotas or compete against subsidized products. He stresses that many are also asking for relief from unsustainable debts, and that to make the transition to sound open economies they need increased aid.

Until recently most developed countries reacted with scepticism to this request, feeling that too much aid has been wasted by corrupt or inefficient governments. Now, believes Kofi Annan, the West has begun to realize that we live in one world, and not two. As he writes, "no one in this world can feel comfortable while so many are suffering and deprived… The growing gap between rich and poor is, as President Bush said last week, 'both a challenge to our compassion and a source of instability' "
Full story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/debt/Story/0,2763,671247,00.html