22 September 2009
Speech at Coca Cola event on the Business Call to Action on the MDGs at Columbia University, New York, 21 September 2009
By Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander
It’s an honour to speak here at Columbia – a university with such a long tradition of excellence.
It’s become something of a cliché when addressing a group of students to say you are speaking to the leaders of tomorrow. But with Columbia boasting President Obama among its former students, today I say it advisedly.
In fact, for more than 60 years, Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs has given students the tools they need to make a difference in the world – whether as public servants or business-people.
And today this school not only excels in the study of global challenges. It reflects the myriad global connections that exist at the start of the 21st century - with more than a hundred nations represented among SIPA’s students.
I want to talk to you today about why I believe tackling extreme poverty is one of the fundamental global challenges of our time. And I’ll talk too about one of the ways in which the British government is working with business leaders to make it happen – through the Business Call to Action initiative.
Nine years ago, world leaders came here to New York and delivered an historic declaration to ‘spare no effort’ in tackling hunger, illiteracy and sickness around the world.
The eight Millennium Development Goals they agreed have helped to galvanise action - including debt cancellation and increased aid – that has changed millions of lives for ever.
Today, nine years later, 40 million more children are in school. The number of people with access to AIDS treatment has increased from just 100,000 to over 3 million. The proportion of the world’s population living in poverty has fallen from a third to a quarter.
Yet, with the 2015 deadline for meeting the Millennium Development Goals looming, it is clear that our pace is too slow, and our vision at risk.
In agreeing those goals, world leaders pledged to reduce infant mortality by two-thirds, and maternal mortality by three-quarters. But unless we act, those goals will not be met by 2015, not even by 2030, not until 2045.
World leaders pledged primary education for every child. Unless we act it will not be met by 2015, not even by 2025, not until 2050.
And unless we act decisively to tackle the threats to our environment, the planet will not suffer less degradation by 2015, but more.
Now since that historic declaration took place almost a decade ago, the world has been shaken not once, but twice by events that took place in this city.
In a world that is still coming to terms with the economic impact of the collapse of Lehman Brothers 12 months ago, and the horror of the attacks on the World Trade Centre eight years ago, some people argue that we can no longer afford to keep the promise we made to eliminate extreme poverty.
Yet I believe that those events demonstrate the extent to which the security and prosperity of all nations are inextricably linked at the beginning of the 21st century.
In the past, many regarded poverty and despair in faraway countries as – at best – an issue of moral regret, a ‘scar on the conscience’ of the rich world. At worst, the plight of those people trapped in extreme poverty was seen as a problem for others - insignificant when compared to the geopolitics of war and power.
Yet just as the financial crisis, which began in the economic powerhouse of the developed nations, is now affecting factory workers in Bangladesh and miners in Zambia, the troubles that ravage fragile states can today menace sturdy ones.
Whether the peril is terrorism, pandemics, drugs or human trafficking – a state so weak that it allows such threats to incubate is a state too weak to contain them.
So, helping the poorest countries of the world to build their state capacity, and tackle conflict, corruption, hunger and disease is not merely the right thing to do. It is the smart thing to do if we are to safeguard our common security, our common prosperity and our common climate.
That is why the British government is committed to play our part in accelerating progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
We are keeping the promises we have made to dedicate 0.7% of national income to development assistance by 2013. By next year our assistance will be equivalent to 0.56% of national income. And we will, by next year, have nearly trebled our bilateral and multilateral aid to Africa since 2004.
Half our global bilateral aid will be invested in public services, helping to get 8 million children into school across Africa and delivering 20 million malaria bednets by next year – and an additional 30 million bednets by 2013.
But while donors can help, the fight against poverty must be led by the leaders of developing countries. As President Obama made clear when he visited Ghana in July – development depends on good governance, first and foremost.
Where we see that commitment to fighting poverty – such as in Ghana and Rwanda – we see that real change is not only possible, but it is happening. And where leaders commit to making a change, that is where countries like the United States and Britain can be true partners for transformational change.
Yet such change is not only a task for governments. We all have a role to play – whether trade unions, charities, concerned individuals or businesses. I’ll be attending the Clinton Global Initiative later this week – a truly great example of how the energy, expertise and knowledge of people of good conscience can be put to work in helping others around the world.
Businesses and business-people can make a contribution to development that is separate to any sense of philanthropy or corporate social responsibility.
Because not only do businesses have the technology, the skills and the expertise to help generate wealth and jobs throughout the developing world. It is also in the best interests of businesses to bring the poorest countries into the global economy and create a globalisation that is inclusive and delivers for all.
And while some people argue that it is the presence of big international corporations like Coca Cola that is the cause of problems in developing countries, I disagree with that crude depiction.
Because, whilst there have been examples where businesses have not properly considered the interests of the communities in which they work, or the workers they employ, let me say that for the vast majority of the world’s poorest people, it is the absence of business – not the presence of business – that is the problem. It is the absence of business that leaves too many dependent on aid - denying them the opportunity to work and provide for their families.
Economic growth alone has lifted more than 500 million people out of poverty over the past 25 years. And just as growth is the best route out of poverty for nations, a job is the surest route out of poverty for individuals.
Governments around the world must carry out our duty to protect citizens from the worst excesses of corporate greed – whether that is the tax evasion that drains public funds, the bribery that rewards corruption or the working conditions that exploit the poor.
Yet we must also support efforts to harness the power of business to deliver positive change. It is that understanding that led the British government to join forces with the United Nations and business leaders from around the world to launch the Business Call to Action last year.
This partnership challenges businesses not to increase their charitable works in developing countries, but to put the core business of their companies to use in the service of generating jobs, creating innovation and providing the kind of global benefits we need to see if we are going to reach the Millennium Development Goals.
There are now more than 70 companies signed up to the Business Call to Action. Each of them has made a commitment to help change lives for the better, and many are already making a real impact.
Whether that’s Britain’s subsidiary of Walmart, which will source around an extra $60 million worth of fresh produce from Africa over the next five years.
Or Vodafone, which already provides mobile phone banking to 6 million people, many of whom don’t have access to any other type of bank.
Or indeed Coca Cola, which has set up over 700 new small independent distribution businesses across Africa – creating more than 4,500 new jobs.
These initiatives aren’t charitable works. Walmart gets new product ranges for its customers, Vodafone is expanding into new markets, and Coca Cola is improving its distribution network.
But these companies are at the same time bringing benefits to the people and communities in developing countries – by providing jobs, new services, or demand for local produce.
Each of these companies, through their membership of the Business Call to Action, gets higher profile for their innovations, guidance from a team based at the United Nations here in New York, and a growing community of practice to share innovations and learn common lessons.
Recent meetings in Cape Town and London, bringing together companies involved in the Business Call to Action, have confirmed that the initiative is going from strength to strength. Some of the next steps are to get more partnerships between the companies that have signed up, to get even more good ideas around the table and benefit from some real economies of scale.
And as we look even further to the future, I want to challenge each of you – as future leaders of business and public life – to consider what contribution you can make to the challenge of eliminating global poverty in our lifetimes. Because if we are going to meet the Millennium Development Goals, and in turn make our world more equal, more safe and more sustainable, we need a true partnership for development.
A partnership that recognises that the ties which bind humanity together are far greater than the differences that too often separate us.
A partnership that sees our global interdependence not merely as a threat, but also an opportunity to create real and lasting change.
A partnership committed to ensuring that all people, regardless of the nation they were born into, have the opportunity to develop their talents and pursue their dreams.
A partnership that sees all people – whether politicians or businesspeople, trade unionists or religious leaders – come together in helping millions to lift themselves from poverty to prosperity.
This is our shared challenge – indeed, our shared responsibility. Together, it can be our shared achievement. Thank you.
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Douglas Alexander, right, at the Coca Cola event, Columbia University. Photo credit: Jeffrey Vock/Coca Cola
