As we settle into the 21st century, we are presented with challenges and opportunities of a magnitude hitherto unseen in human history. We have the scientific know-how, technological advancement and financial resources necessary to transform our world into a place free of extreme poverty and epidemic disease and well on its way to environmental sustainability, universal education, social equality and political freedom. Ours is the generation that can finally provide the leadership and the will to pull it off.
A truly collective response is needed to meet the most pressing challenge we face today. Roughly one-fifth of the world currently lives in extreme poverty, surviving on less than one dollar a day. In his book The End of Poverty, economist Jeffrey Sachs quotes a statistic you’ve likely heard before: each day, some 20,000 Africans die of chronic hunger and diseases such as AIDS and malaria. This is the equivalent of someone dying there every three seconds because they lack basic nutrition and health care. If we truly believe in the inalienable equality of all humanity, as enshrined in Canadian and international law, we cannot help but act to assist the one billion of our fellow humans who live at death’s door.
Before you dismiss this as the platitude-filled star-gazing of a graduating writer who should know better, consider the following success stories. In roughly 15 years, beginning in the late 1960s, a concerted effort from the global health community rid the world of smallpox, a disease that once killed millions every year. In the 10 years following the signing of the Montreal Protocol in 1987, participating countries completely eliminated the production and use of the chemical CFC, and the ozone layer has since begun its slow and steady regeneration.
When compared to these targeted efforts, the overwhelming scope of global poverty may understandably dissuade you from thinking about the complex problem and the necessarily multifaceted solution required. Yet there is good news-Sachs quotes World Bank estimates indicating that, thanks to existing aid programs, the number of extreme poor has steadily fallen, from half the world’s population two generations ago to one-fifth of the population today.
As big as the remaining problem is, the solution-the complete eradication of extreme poverty-is in sight. It is up to us to make that final push, to get the remaining fifth on the first rung of the ladder of development, as Sachs puts it. Then, the level playing field essential for a healthy and competitive global community can actually exist.
What a privilege, and what an obligation, for our generation.
Governments of the developed world are quick to express fears that standards of living in their countries will decline if foreign aid is increased. This explains why no Western government has yet met the UN’s Point 7 Pledge, promising 0.7 per cent of each nation’s GDP to foreign aid. Foreign aid levels in Canada and the U.S. currently hover between 0.2-0.3 per cent.
Compare this to the Marshall Plan, the large-scale U.S. foreign investment program that saved Europe from ruin after World War II by using two per cent of the U.S. GDP to stunning effect. A “Marshall Plan for Africa,” using only 0.7 per cent of the West’s GDP, could literally save the continent by providing a stable economic base on which to build, thus forestalling the greater costs and more dangerous reality of an unstable Africa in the future. The West has made such an effort before; we must do so again.
It is also important to remember that needy countries are not passively waiting to be rescued. Many are more than willing to accept help and expertise in exchange for hard work and a commitment to implement and monitor lasting reforms. The question is whether the West is willing to pay a small economic price today for a worldwide economic, strategic, and moral benefit later.
Yes, “moral”-we must bring morality back into the discussion, because economic and political gain can’t be the only justification for tackling poverty and disease. Aid discourse too often focuses on practical gain, since that is the language of the market, but people shouldn’t automatically feel bad about feeling at all. Morality isn’t an inconvenience-it’s an imperative, a kick-start to action.
We have to stop being scared of the fact that a fair and equitable world, free of extreme poverty and full of environmental and economic prosperity, is actually possible, and within our reach. We must challenge the convenient excuses offered by those who profit from the status quo, resist the urge to close ranks in defense of our high standard of living, and work together with those nations who would join us. If we ignore the progress already made and dismiss the effort as impossible, we doom one-fifth of the world.
Though university may leave us muddled after too many essays and too little thought, just think of how much we know, and how much we can do. We must humbly couple our knowledge and skills with the resources and commitment of those living in poverty to come up with a solution together.
Buy anti-malaria mosquito nets, visit thehungersite.com, use green bins, call the PMO to push for justice in Darfur. You’ve heard it before? You’re tired of being inspired? That’s fair. But pick one thing, pick 12, and go to work!
Every era must deal with change, but there is no historical precedent for the world we are facing. We therefore have an opportunity to set a new precedent of equality and justice. We can do it by learning from, but not being shackled to, the ways of the past; by embracing, but not dwelling on, our diversity, and instead accepting each other as individuals; by challenging those who wield ignorance and hate, especially when masqueraded as truth.
If the truly great leaders of our time and times past have taught us anything, it is that only through love and respect can we live together and fashion a just society. Within our lifetime, and for generations to come, let us create such a world.
