World Bank President Robert Zoellick: A World Beyond Aid
World Bank President Robert Zoellick delivers address at GW on new global realities.
September 15, 2011
By Jennifer Eder
Women make up 50 percent of the global population and 40 percent of the global workforce.
In Africa, women are the backbone of communities, farming and producing 80 percent of the continent’s food.
But across the globe women own only 1 percent of the world’s wealth.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick wants to change that.
“We will not release the full potential of half of the world’s population until globally we address the issue of equality; until countries, communities and households around the world acknowledge women’s rights and change the rules of inequality,” said Dr. Zoellick during a speech at GW’s Jack Morton Auditorium Wednesday. “Giving women the right to own land; giving women the right to own, run and operate a business; giving women the right to inherit; giving women greater earning power; giving women greater control over resources within their households could boost children’s health, could increase girls’ education, could leverage entrepreneurship and economic productivity and could take us closer to that world beyond aid.”
With the World Bank/IMF annual meetings planned for later this month, Dr. Zoellick used his speech, titled “Beyond Aid,” to address the new realities of a world in which developing countries account for a growing share of the global economy and are taking a greater role in determining how the world is run. Dr. Zoellick called on countries to recognize the new order and work together to move toward a “world beyond aid.”
The event was hosted by GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs.
During his introductory remarks, Michael Brown, dean of the Elliott School, described Dr. Zoellick as one of the world’s leading thinkers about global problems and long-term solutions.
“He is in the vanguard in thinking in an inclusive, integrated way about the challenges of poverty, development, security, sustainability, education, governance and globalization,” said Dr. Brown. “It’s a complex equation, but that’s the world in which we live. Robert Zoellick is uniquely positioned to help us crack the code.”
Dr. Zoellick, the 11th president of the World Bank, described the organization’s origins in 1944 as part of the Bretton Woods system, designed to establish a framework for an international economic system. Then, the world was still at war and looking to rebuild for the future. Developed countries dominated the global landscape. However, today’s world, Dr. Zoellick said, “is not the 1944 world.”
“Adapting to this new world is about recognizing that we must all be responsible stakeholders now,” Dr. Zoellick said.
And yet many developed countries adopt a “do what I say, not what I do” attitude on issues such as fiscal discipline, free trade and debt sustainability, Dr. Zoellick said. This attitude ignores the fact that old hierarchies between developed and developing countries have been replaced with a transformed set of relationships.
“The rising economies will be joining new networks – of countries, international institutions, civil society and the private sector – in diverse combinations and changing patterns,” Dr. Zoellick said. “These new networks are displacing the old hierarchies.”
Dr. Zoellick said the global economy has entered a “new danger zone,” and Europe, Japan and the U.S. must be responsible stakeholders.
“They have procrastinated for too long on taking the difficult decisions, narrowing what choices are now left to a painful few,” Dr. Zoellick said. “Unless Europe, Japan and the United States can also face up to responsibilities they will drag down not only themselves but the global economy. The time for muddling through is over.”
The U.S. should slow its rate of entitlement spending on programs like Social Security and Medicare, reform its trade policy and adopt tax reforms that will boost economic growth, Dr. Zoellick said.
In today’s world, Dr. Zoellick said, countries must think about development differently. Solid economic policies and multilateral agreements can be just as important as monetary aid, he said.
“In a world beyond aid, assistance would be integrated with – and connected to – global growth strategies, fundamentally driven by private investment and entrepreneurship,” Dr. Zoellick said. “The goal would not be charity, but a mutual interest in building more poles of growth.”
For developing countries, this means mobilizing and leveraging domestic savings, encouraging good governance, investing in people, promoting small business and private investment, improving infrastructure and investing in connectivity, Dr. Zoellick said.
As part of moving beyond aid, Dr. Zoellick proposed a “50 percent solution” that would aim to encourage gender equality across the world.
“Simply put, it’s about changing policies and empowering every person, man or woman, not just providing aid packages,” he said.
At the end of his remarks, Dr. Zoellick said he enjoys speaking at universities because he believes there is “great potential and power from the next generation.”
“The issues I’m talking about here aren’t just going to be decided by the chancellors and the presidents and the prime ministers that are in office today. These are going to go on for a while,” Dr. Zoellick told the GW students in the audience. “These are going to be your issues and your questions.”
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