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Introduction by Jeffrey Sachs: Transcript
We are here to talk about the shocking state of the world's
poorest of the poor, the people that die because they don't
have enough income or enough help to stay alive. We're talking
about international goals that were established in September
2000 to try to do something about this. We're on a tight timetable,
even though we've gotten started a few minutes late, because
we only have twelve years to go, basically.
These Millennium Development Goals, which emerged from the
Millennium Assembly that took place in September 2000, are
the internationally-agreed goals to address the stark crises
of absolute poverty, of hunger, of disease, of maternal mortality,
of children being out of school, of the terrible discrimination
against girls and women in so many places in the world, of
environmental degradation, the lack of access to water and
sanitation. The beauty of these goals is that they set some
targets which you're going to hear about, and they set a timetable.
The timetable is tight, but some analysis shows you pretty
quickly it's still achievable.
We're going to talk today about the questions of what can
be done in this world, and by whom, to make progress—more
than progress, to really solve these terrible but solvable
scourges that all come under the rubric of absolute poverty.
You're going to be hearing from some of the leaders of a United
Nations project called the Millennium Project, which was initiated
by Secretary-General Kofi Annan last fall. We're in the first
year of the project. I have the great honor to be directing
it, together with the leaders of ten task forces. You're going
to meet several of them today. They're real experts in their
respective areas. We're charged with the specific task of
what do we do, how, by whom, when. We're trying to get practical,
and the more practical you get, actually, in some ways, the
better it looks, because in every one of these targets we
could make marvelous headway in the world if we would not
dream and not debate about the biggest abstractions, but get
down to work and actually solve these problems.
That's what we're going to be talking about today. We're very
lucky that our moderator and host is the dean of the School
of International and Public Affairs, Lisa Anderson. I'm going
to turn the podium over to Lisa in just a moment. I want to
explain briefly that our program is divided into three sections,
as Gaul was, and as our project is. We have a section on the
extreme poverty issue. That's the first panel. The second
is on health and nutrition goals. The third is on living conditions
and the sustainable environment.
All through this, though, will be the theme of shared global
responsibility because, I think, the essence of these goals
is that, while achievable, these are goals that cannot be
achieved by any one country alone, much less some of the poorest
and most vulnerable places on the planet. If they are going
to be achieved, they are going to be achieved through an international
effort in which rich countries like the United States, the
countries of the European Union, Japan, and others, play an
absolutely essential role.
So that is our game plan. We're planning on having a lot of
time for discussion, comment, and questions, so save them
up as we go along, and thank you very much for coming.
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