A 'rich' New Year's resolution

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Project Syndicate

It is time for New Year's resolutions, and this year's are obvious. When the millennium opened, world leaders pledged to seek peace, the end of poverty, and a cleaner environment. Since then, the world has seen countless acts of violence, terrorism, famine, and environmental degradation. In 2005, we can begin to change direction.

Knowledge, scientific advance, travel, and global communications give us many opportunities to find solutions for the world's great problems. When a new disease called SARS hit China last year, the World Health Organization coordinated the actions of dozens of governments, and the crisis was quickly brought under control, at least for now.

When Bill Gates donated US$1 billion to bring vaccines to poor children, he made it possible to protect tens of millions of young people from preventable diseases. When an agricultural research unit called the World Agroforestry Center discovered that a certain tree could help African farmers grow more food, they introduced a new and valuable approach to overcoming Africa's chronic food crisis.

Unfortunately, such examples of international cooperation are as rare as they are impressive. With our knowledge, science, and technology, the horrendous living conditions of the world's poorest people could be dramatically improved. Millions of people could be spared malaria, HIV/AIDS, hunger, and life in slums. The problem is not that we lack good solutions. The problem is that we fail to cooperate globally to put those solutions into practice.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has honored me by making me his Special Adviser on the Millennium Development Goals and asking me to lead a group of scholars and development experts in identifying practical steps to reach the goals by the target date in 2015. This effort, known as the UN Millennium Project, will issue its report to Secretary-General Annan on Jan. 17, 2005. Our study, Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, will be available for free around the world at www.unmillenniumproject.org.

What we learned is easily summarized. For every major problem -- hunger, illiteracy, malnutrition, malaria, AIDS, drought, and so forth -- there are practical solutions that are proven and affordable. These investments, in turn, would strengthen the private sector and economic growth. Yet they require global partnership between the rich and poor countries of the world. Most importantly, the world's richest countries need to do much more to help the poorest countries make use of modern science and technology to solve these great problems.

The U.S., for example, currently spends around $450 billion each year on its military, but less than $15 billion to help the world's poorest countries fight disease, educate their children, and protect the environment. This is a mistake, because military approaches alone cannot make America safe. Only shared prosperity can truly make the planet secure. The U.S. should be investing much more in peaceful economic development.

Germany, Japan, and several other rich countries are also doing much less than they should -- and much less than they promised the poor countries that they would do. In 2002, all donor countries committed to "make concrete efforts" to reach 0.7 percent of national income in development aid to poor countries. Germany, Japan, and the U.S., among others, remain far below this commitment.

The year 2005 will offer many opportunities for citizens around the world to insist that their leaders keep their Millennium promises. After our report is issued in January, Secretary-General Kofi Annan will issue a report to the world in the spring, identifying the practical steps that should be taken this year. Around the same time, an important commission on Africa will issue a report to United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair. Then, in July, the UK will host the annual G-8 Summit of the rich countries.

Blair has promised that he will make the fight against poverty and long-term climate change the two priorities of the summit. In September, the world's leaders will reconvene at the UN to decide on their actions during the coming decade.

The rich and powerful nations often declare their leadership in the world. The U.S. claims that it helps the world fight poverty, but instead spends its money on weapons. Germany and Japan say that they want a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, but neither has yet followed through on its own pledges to help the world's poorest people. The world's poorest countries will ask themselves why they should vote for Germany and Japan to have permanent seats on the Security Council if they can't keep their promises.

Nothing would be wiser for the world's rich countries than to fulfill their pledges to the world's poor, hungry and disease- ridden peoples. Therein lies the path to sustained peace. 2005 is the year that words can become reality, and that the world can begin to fulfill its hopes for our new millennium. Let us make our leaders aware that we aspire to shared peace and prosperity. Let us pledge that the rich and powerful should take real actions to help the poor, the weak, and the suffering.

The writer is Professor of Economics and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.