Author : Jean-Michel Severino
Date : February 25, 2009
I wanted to react to several very powerful pieces - each accompanied by concrete proposals - which we have just read on our blog about how to manage the present crisis. Achim Steiner demonstrated that a Green New Deal was not an additional response to the crisis but that it should lie at the heart of whatever strategies are selected to combat it. Kemal Dervis also appealed for us not to relax our efforts in fighting climate change but, on the contrary, to seize the opportunity of the stimulus packages to strengthen our actions in that field. Moreover, Minouche Shafik reminded us that the dramatic impact the present economic downturn will undoubtedly have on the very poor required enhanced social protection measures. By the way, may I take this opportunity to welcome Minouche to our small community of bloggers! Finally, using the WFP as an example, Josette Sheeran has targeted a fundamental issue: that of the demand for the goods of developing countries.
In fact, these four posts complement each other, but if they are to coexist we must go further. In fact, I am convinced that the recovery plan the world economy so greatly needs must be both green and shared by everyone: every step the international community has to take in the coming months will have to deal with all these aspects simultaneously, and for reasons that are only marginally ethical.
The recovery will have to be global. For, in fact, without rapid action, the increase in poverty will be dramatic, massive, and lasting.
Donor countries might be tempted to put this international solidarity agenda on the back burner as they themselves suffer the impact of the present downturn. So we have a duty to educate our fellow citizens as regards the need for a global recovery. Numbers such as the forecasts for growth in 2009 speak for themselves. Indeed, the only countries where growth, however weak, will continue are the emerging and developing countries. Thus the IMF is predicting global growth of 0.5% in 2009: -2% in developed countries and +3.3% in emerging and developing countries. It is therefore imperative for the whole world that these engines of growth keep running: maintaining growth in developing countries is a condition of recovery in the developed world.
That is why it is essential for bilateral and multilateral financing institutions to build on the considerable strength of their balance sheet and mobilize their powerful capital base to take the place of failing markets. But, in order to work effectively, the strategic framework and the rules of the game in which they operate must be focused on the essential. That is the challenge of the work being carried out within the G20 and I hope this will have rapid results. Now is also an opportune moment for supporting the demand made on developing countries: allowing the markets to function and therefore maintaining opportunities for investment is the most useful action and the one with the most immediate effect. The kinds of actions done by the WFP must therefore spread. Securing the demand made on developing countries - especially in agriculture - through medium term contracts is a very effective instrument for promoting supply. Above all, at the moment it would be extremely counter productive if the OECD countries were to close their boundaries or argue against investment in developing countries: by encouraging exports, the latter can in fact contribute effectively to lowering prices on the markets of industrialized countries.
This global recovery will also have to be green. At a time when all the environmental indicators are red, all the important gatherings on sustainable development this year - the most important of which is Copenhagen in December - will remind us that every action must now be considered in conjunction with the climate challenge. It will also have to take account of the new paradigm that all natural resources are scarce. The UNEP is working on this issue of a "Green New Deal" at the moment. But the stimulus packages will include a great deal of investment in infrastructures, and energy will have to be at the heart of it. Will we then be able to make good choices - choices leading to access to energy, energy efficiency and the promotion of renewable energies? The cyclical drop in energy prices must not make us "miss the bus" on the issue of energy adaptation. Access to energy for the greatest number will also have to be part of our priorities. Therefore why not make energy the 9th Millennium Development Goal? We could, for example, aim to double global access to energy by 2015 through renewables, while improving the energy efficiency of growth by 100%.
Our world needs great new challenges that link the fate of the North and the South. The one that we face today fulfills this aim and can be the engine of a new technological revolution: Several industrialized countries are now betting on a green recovery of their own accord - apparent in a degree of "greening"[1] of their plans. Barack Obama has used the "Repower America" program drawn up by Al Gore as an inspiration to propose a new energy model. In France, some of the investments envisaged by the recovery plan seek to anticipate the measures of the Grenelle de l'Environnement.[2]
Finally, the recovery will have to be shared. Faced with the growing inequalities created by the crisis in the poorest countries, we must be ever vigilant. There is an urgent need to consider how to manage the social consequences of the crisis and how developing societies will adapt to these upheavals. Firstly, because the effectiveness of all the recovery plans is at stake. As we learned, for example, from the work carried out at the beginning of the 2000s with the World Bank on pro-poor growth, to which the AFD contributed a great deal, the effectiveness and soundness of economic growth are increased by the reduction in inequality. This is true locally but globally as well: a better spread of wealth makes the world globally more prosperous.
Redistribution mechanisms will therefore have to be established for the most vulnerable countries. Bob Zoellick's idea of earmarking 0.7% of the US stimulus package for a vulnerability fund for developing countries[3] goes in that direction.
We will also have to find "social transmission belts" for protecting the most underprivileged. Our role as developers includes strengthening those sectors that most directly affect the consequences of the crisis. In particular, this is why we will have to push the food agenda up the ladder of our concerns. Maintaining our support for the farmers of the South and taking part in constructing the future of food must be at the core of our recovery efforts.
The same applies to sectors enabling social services to be provided to the greatest number and especially those who must be protected from the immediate effects of the degradation in their socioeconomic circumstances, particularly through the provision of microfinance and health services.
Of course, every country must receive sectorial support according to its needs. But it is possible to identify a few key generic areas that could alleviate the effects of the crisis.
This year we have to determine the measures that will yield concrete, short term results. But we must also keep in mind our concern for building the future. In facing up to this crisis, we must think of the impact of our actions in the short and the long term simultaneously because the time needed to respond to the present disturbances does not necessarily match that required for the management of large structural problems (such as energy or agriculture). Our task is to effectively merge this triple agenda of an economic recovery that is global, green, and shared by us all.
JMS
[1] Le Monde Economie, February 3, 2009 [2] A four months long, multi-party debate involving representatives of government and organizations (professional associations, non-governmental organizations) and has concluded with numerous agreements on environment-related policy. [3] A Stimulus Package for the World, NY Times, January 22, 2009
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Date : December 12, 2009 04:42
High speed internet connection in my hotel room in Turkey on my way to Africa, tonight, I had the chance to read several blog articles in the Ideas 4 Development website, which could not be possible on my regular North American schedule - thanks to the jetlag. As a development consultant, these topics on global development impacts and social responsibilities are dearer to me
How can we, without stopping writing or talking about these topics, focus on action no matter how little it is to provide or contribute to the well being of our future? That is the question we should be asking ourselves and that is what is driving me now - and I hope I will be a useful contributor from the fields.
Until then, you keep writing and I will keep reading.
Abdul
Date : October 29, 2009 05:37
L'article exprime bien les grands problèmes de tous les jours qui sont entre autres l'autosuffisance alimentaire, la sécurité alimentaire et la gestion de l'environment. Notre planète a connu des révolutions qui en partie étaient dues a des conflits fonciers.
L'environment ne devrait pas être vu comme étant seulement une tentative de préserver la terre d'une probable désertification par example mais comme un moyen de faire comprendre que les hommes et les femmes peuvent s'engager à vivre du produit de l'environment. Cela est déjà possible dans quelques pays avec l'aide de la Banque Mondiale.
Il est certain que les personnes du troisième age peuvent être de bons fermiers et encourager les jeunes à les assister parce que savoir bien manger et une condition pour une réussite personnelle et professionnelle sur tous les plans.
Date : April 20, 2009 15:46
Recovery - that is the buzz word everywhere...it is timely to coin 'green' with tha recovery efforts - billions are planned for investments in the near future..
The opportunity to include green initiatives, inside the recovery packages are highly probable.. and practical.
In my view, the volume of pollution is proportional (varying ratios) to the rate of developments...creating consumption based economies, drawing more resources, energy, food, creating more waste and pollution into our only home - 'earth'...
if that is true.. the developing nations are on its way to being the resource 'guzlers' and creating more waste..
If we are pro-active, we shall educate and implement more 'green technology' in developing nations with higher population density...avoid future climatic crash..
Date : March 7, 2009 17:53
Dear JMS,
I understand from your text that in addressing the impacts of the crisis in countries of the South, donors should try to finance projects that are both "green" (i.e. putting recipients on environentally-sustainable tracks), "social" (i.e. employment-generating, caring for the most vulnerable) and efficient as a short to medium-term economic stimulus. Am I correct? If so, this leads me to the following questions:
1/ how big is the overlap between these three circles? What is its the absorptive capacity in terms of financing? Is the impact of the credit crunch such that green social and 'economically-stimulating' projects in developing nations can absorbe all of the aid available? Or will a global stimulus package, in order to be effective as an economic stimulus, need to go into non-green activities (building coal powerplants, say) or focus on projects that support economic activity but whose social impact is questionable (such as refinancing banks)?
2/ behind neat 'ideas 4 development', are donors organisations such as DFID, the UNDP, the ADB, UNEP or the AFD really reorienting their activities according to this agenda? How long will it take such organisations to move beyond the business-as-usual scenario?
Looking forward to your response!
Chris
Date : February 27, 2009 14:25
Dear. Mr. Jean-Michel Severino
Let me first extend my sincere greetings and sheer admiration to your thorough, thought-provoking argument. Indeed, as the moment is galvanized by two powerful leaders - the President Barack Obama of the US and the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the UN, the long sought-after political momentum is finally on the way to the COP 15 in Copenhagen. Reminding us of those critical points, you suggested several key issues that demand our active response and mutual understanding.
I'm a university student in Republic of Korea and rather a fledgling in the professional field of environmental issues to be honest. However, as the World Youth Report for this year's topic is decided to be "Youth and Climate Change", the correlation between the climate change as an urgent concerns and the status of youth like me is becoming more manifest than ever. It is in due respect to this fact that I dare share my ideas on your comment.
First of all, I express the full agreement with your argument that the ultimate solution to the climate change should compose three important components; it has to integrate international efforts to promote mutual wellbeing through an environmentally sustainable solution. In my humble opinion, the problem with the environmental sustainability lies in not public ignorance per se, not as much as the continued reluctance of the powerful leaders to acknowledge and act on principle. There's a conceivable lack of recognition that everybody on the planet share the same risk and responsibility. It seems like some people in the first class believe they'd be safe when there's a hole in the engine and people in the economic class are feeling the intense pressure. As you so rightfully pointed out, the strong will and determination to share the responsibility and resolution to solve the environmental concerns must be followed in the wake of the international conferences. The solution we seek should not be limited to the board room, but it must go beyond the borders, stretch out to those in need, and gather together the global community sharing the individual, yet collective destiny.
With due respect to your innovative as well as provocative initiatives, I'd like to draw some distinction from one of your suggestion. The MDGs are not enough to generate the passion and enthusiasm of corporate leaders to come up with sustainable energy alternatives. We've already passed the halfway and most of the goals remain in doubt, let alone falling short of the expected targets. What we rather need is the form of strong protocol that wields as much power and authority as the major international trade agreements and exerts as much influence and mandate as the resolution of the Security Council. The stimulus package has been passed, yet much remains in constant controversy for the bill to be put to the optimal use.[i] Therefore, it is still uncertain whether the political empathy will actually be translated into somber resolution and serious commitment. I sincerely wish the best and express heartfelt support for reaffirming the volition to fight against the climate change and truly pray that this time when the world leaders gather in Copenhagen, it will not end in "calling in the desert", but "calling in the center and heart of every individual on our planet, earth."
i. Obama Plans Major Shifts in Spending, NY Times, February 26, 2009
Date : February 26, 2009 05:50
Dears
I cach the ideas from this article that "Our task is to effectively merge this triple agenda of an economic recovery that is global, green, and shared by us all".
Economic recovery should cover energy, food, climate change, microfinance and health care services. I agree.
Now in Vietnam after Lunar new year - unemployment is expanding. The government have just put the policy to support the workers out of enterprises since March 2009. Help them come back to country side with salary support for some months.
Let them to learn new job.
Every family reduce daily expenditure.
The "Stimulus package" 1 Billions USD taking from National Reserve Budget is given to the Banking system to support export of goods with subsidies 4% interest rate
The Winter-spring harvest is good. Full of rice. Full in market vegetable. The price is down, so peasants don't want to collect vegetable. We think about processing industry for vegetables, rice and fruit - It need to be improved.
The government starts to build warehouse in the South of Vietnam. But keeping quality of rice and other things in warehouse is new for Vietnammese workers .
The Ministry of Education and Training implement the credits for poor students : 800.000 VND / 1 months for education in Institue and University. Now total about 1000 Billions VND will be use for this objective .
The crisis in this time is deferent at the past : people have limited clothes, foods and limited conditions. Only The expenditure for education, health care and services are big problems for them.
Since March, government increased the price for electrycity. For the poor the price of electricity reduced of 30 to 40% (50 first numbers). For more rich families the price is increasing. Following it the price for house renting and water will be increasing too...
Majority members in FORUM http://edu.net.vn agree that the crisis at that moment have deeply impact Vietnam. Because Vietnam became WTO member since 2007 -This is Global impact .
Thank you
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