The end of global poverty

"People are statistics for economists. People are human-beings for non-economists". These were the words that spontaneously came to mind at the end of the Panglaykim Memorial Lecture presented by Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs last week.

To a question on poverty in Indonesia, Sachs outrightly denied that such a thing could exist in this country. Perhaps, Sachs did not want to offend the host country in any way. It was possible, however, as Prof. Emil Salim explained later, that Sachs might be viewing Indonesia at a macro level.

Prof. Sachs is a brilliant research scholar, and no wonder, he kept the audience spell-bound for over one and a half hours with his eloquent speech, reeling off impressive clinical analysis on how we could and should end extreme poverty, disease and hunger in our lifetime.

He was emphatic that economic development is far from universal, and far from automatic. He underscored the importance of global commitments, particularly that of the U.S., in meeting the terrific challenges ahead to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

According to his theory, economic development would necessarily come slow to landlocked countries, as transport costs would be huge without a sea-based trade. Coastal cities have always been at the forefront of faster development. "It does matter where you are in the planet."

Other factors that hinder development are basically an inability to grow food (the terrain and the soil conditions), inability to stay alive free of infectious diseases like malaria, bad governance and closed societies (like North Korea).

I wished that Sachs had stressed more on good governance and wise leadership, factors that are awfully wanting in some countries. Infusing increased development aid to poorly-governed or corrupt nations may end up failing to reach the intended targets. However, Sachs pointed out that generally, democratic countries would perform better in eradicating poverty, as people would have a say in governance.

Sachs said categorically that the "war on terror" could never be won -- it was time that a "war on poverty" is put on the rails. According to him, awful negligence, not necessarily greed, was the root cause of all evils that lead to global poverty. He also lamented that U.S. politics was of late much more money- driven, with a lot of abuse in its wake.

It is indeed heartening that Prof. Sachs is the director of the U.N. Millennium Project. Few in the world are as passionate and committed as Sachs about ending global poverty. Success cannot be predicted but the vigilant efforts and constant follow- through would not be wanting, with people of eminence like Prof. Sachs around.

D. CHANDRAMOULI, Jakarta