16 February 2004
MAKING GLOBALISATION WORK FOR ALL conference
Treasury Address and introduction by Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury
Together with Lord Griffiths may I welcome you in the name of all those who have been involved in the organisation of this Conference. We are grateful to the Chancellor for allowing the Conference to be held in the Treasury and for taking a key part in it today. His staff has worked hard to make this a great success and Brian and I are so appreciative of their and the Chancellor’s help. I don’t need to tell you of the Chancellor’s great commitment to alleviating the sufferings of the very poor and to the task of finding ways to bring them out of abject poverty. He has been a significant voice at the most senior International level. There are a number of us here this morning who value the occasional working breakfasts with him and the Secretary of State for International Development. We look forward to hearing his address shortly.
Another good friend of mine and of many here, is the President of the World Bank, Mr James Wolfensohn, who some years ago received an honorary Knighthood from her Majesty- so perhaps in UK territory we may call him ‘Sir James’!
Now many things have been said about the World Bank – some unkind criticisms in my opinion – but I don’t think there would be many who would dissent from my view that Jim has done a great deal to change the image of the World Bank and to draw out, and make known, the immense contribution the Bank and its staff make to our world. He himself is known for his eloquent and passionate commitment to the Millennium Development Goals. I have personal cause to be grateful to Jim because, a few years ago, we had a serious conversation which led to the formation of the World Faiths Development Dialogue – which he and I founded. This initiative sprang out of Jim’s perception that the world faiths make a huge contribution towards development but there was a need to draw it, to maximise the impressive potential of faith communities and to enable development to be the gateway into deeper dialogue and unity. The Director of WFDD is with us, Dr.Michael Taylor.
Following the opening presentations and key addresses, we look forward to hearing from the Rt.Hon Mr. Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for International Development, Bono and President Lula of Brazil.
Session 3 ‘A Call to Action’ concludes our day when a panel comprising key NGO representatives chaired by Chris Bain will attempt to draw the key elements together. I hope the programme will give us time to get to know one another and raise sharp issues on matters that concern us all.
By way of introduction, let me offer a few thoughts about the moral imperative of development. It was said of Maurice Cononsky, the famous French chef, that he knew 1000 recipes for chocolate mousse but without chocolate none of them would work. Well, are in no doubt of the diverse nature of our gathering. We represent many different professions, backgrounds, creeds and nations – but what holds us together – the chocolate, so to speak - is, I suspect, a passion to do something about shocking inequalities in our world.
I am not here as a professional economist- that is the territory of the Chancellor, Lord Griffiths, the President of the World Bank and many others too. I am not here as a politician. I am here as a witness to what absolute poverty does to people. My education in development issues started in earnest when, as Archbishop, I visited some of the poorest places in earth and saw the grim reality of what it means to be born in places like Sudan, Ethiopia, or a shanty town in South America. And you cannot enter into the sufferings of others without those experiences branding you in some way and calling you to do something, to be a voice, to speak up for the very poor, and to seek, in however small a way it might be, to bring some of them out of the nightmare of absolute or nigh absolute poverty – where life is not a gift but a crushing burden.
And it is that moral imperative that grips me and grips us all. Ladies and gentlemen, advanced civilisations should not tolerate that a mere accident of birth determines whether we live with plenty or want. It is surely a horrifying blemish on the goodness and greatness of advanced societies that we should accept as natural that 20% of humanity have access to 80% of the world’s resources and 80% have access only to 20%. It is nothing less than a shocking indictment on western society that we spend so much on ourselves and so little on those on have nothing. The only statistics I shall use in these opening remarks are the following:
- That in 2002 the English spent almost £2.3billion on pet food and pet care products
- That in 2002 people in the EU spent more than 54 billion Euros on cosmetics
- That in 2002 Americans spent $700bill on beverages
- That $800billion is spent worldwide on military equipment and weapons.
- The US spends nearly 400billion with Russia next with $60billion.
Now, I have nothing against defence, pet food, beverages and cosmetics but these figures, when contrasted with the money spent on alleviating poverty, indicate sharply where our priorities are located.
Of course, the moral imperative strikes at the heart of all who have the opportunity to make a difference. No substantial changes will come about unless the least developed countries have stable governments that are accountable to their people. Abject poverty often goes hand in hand with conflict, corruption and despotic regimes. There has to be change there before lasting improvements can be delivered.
The moral imperative demands from religious groups to ensure that their traditions do not hold back responsible progress. As Joseph Stiglitz remarks in his essay in John Dunning’s excellent book Making Globalisation Good the clash of tradition with advancing knowledge. He questions: ‘How will societies that have traditionally discriminated against women achieve a higher degree of equality, at the same time that they maintain traditional values?’ I have observed with some sadness that some faith groups have not been as forward looking with respect to women’s rights, the education of women and children, limiting family size, etc as they ought to be.
The moral imperative also points to governments and businesses to do far more than at present they are doing. Yes, so much progress has been made and today we do not want to take away from many governments who are aware of the moral obligation to give development a higher priority. But the rhetoric is hollow when delivery falls far short of promise. The fact is that we still need to find at least another $50billion dollars a year, on top of what is currently donated or given, to fulfil the targets set by the Millennium Development Goals. The Chancellor himself states in his essay in this book that ‘without a substantial transfer of additional resources from the richest to the poorest countries in the form of investment for development’….’the long-term causes of poverty cannot be solved’.
The relief of unpayable debt, of course, is an important element in dealing with the burden that falls on struggling economies. Nonetheless, however effective NGO’s and faith groups were in the impressive Jubilee 2000 campaign, we should resist the temptation to think that that issue alone is the answer to the problems. In truth, creating a fairer, better world requires a multiplicity of responses, and demands from us all a commitment to work in a closer partnership if there is to be any chance of getting anyway need meeting the MGD targets.
One last word. We are privileged to have a number of Americans with us today and may I thank them for being here and for the significant role America already plays in development. However, America, as with every other nation, can do far more and hopefully that will be among the encouragements that will go from our Conference today. However, I wonder how many Americans know what is written on the base of the Statue of Liberty? When I came across the words just two weeks ago I was struck by their relevance to the needs of our world. The verse simply says:
‘Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door’.
I would not suggest for one moment that the answer to the world’s problems is to send all in need to America. Of course not, but we need the same spirit of generosity if we are going to make the 21st century a century of hope. The ‘huddled masses’ who ‘long to breathe free’ should be enabled to do so in their own lands. Today is an opportunity to find new ways of responding to the moral imperative which demands a serious, uncompromising and sustained commitment from us all.