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World Bank MDG Efforts help save 13 million lives since 2000
In his opening statement to world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly, yesterday, World Bank Group President, Robert B. Zoellick, said that the World Bank has helped to save the lives of 13 million people with its MDG-related IDA fund for the world’s poorest since 2000.
He was addressing a session on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). He said that the World Bank will redouble efforts to mobilise substantial new investments agriculture, education, and health to close the overall MDG gap over the next five years.
Signed in 2000, the goals commit developing countries, donors, and others to eliminate extreme poverty and hunger and significantly improve the economic and human welfare of poor people worldwide by 2015.
“The Millennium Development Goals are central to the World Bank Group’s mission and our everyday work. Since 2000, IDA funding has helped save 13 million lives,” said Zoellick in prepared remarks for the opening plenary of the High-Level Meetings on the MDGs at the United Nations.
“We are working with our partners to deliver measurable results across the development agenda. We need to interconnect the various goals. It is not enough to build health clinics if there are no roads for mothers to gain access to them.
“It is not enough to train teachers or provide textbooks, if children have to struggle with homework at night in the dark. People do not live their lives in health sectors, or education sectors, or infrastructure sectors, arranged in tidy compartments. People live in families, villages, communities, countries, where all the issues of everyday life merge. We need to connect the dots,” Zoellick said.
“This is what IDA, the World Bank’s fund for the poorest, is doing. Over the last 10 years, IDA has increased its no-interest and grant funding in support of developing countries from $4.4 billion in 2000 to $14.5 billion this year,” said Zoellick, calling on countries to support IDA’s replenishment this year.
World Bank Group President, Robert B. Zoellick
“Today, it is emerging economies that are helping pull the world economy out of recession. Today, some developing countries are emerging as economic powers; others are moving towards becoming additional poles of growth; and yet some are struggling to attain their potential within this new system – where North and South, East and West, can be points on a compass, not economic destinies. I believe in Africa. I believe that Africa can be a global pole of growth,” said Zoellick.
Looking ahead to 2015, the World Bank Group President said that it was also vital that the development community reflects on lessons learned during the last ten years of the MDGs, and to build on what had worked to deliver better development results over the period.
Describing the impact of the World Bank’s fund for the poorest, Zoellick said that since 2000, IDA funding has helped immunise 311 million children; provided access to water and sanitation for 177 million people; helped more than 47 million people access health services; provided nutrition supplements to 99 million children; and educated 13 million girls.
The International Development Association (IDA) is the World Bank’s fund for the poorest. Established in 1960, IDA aims to reduce poverty by providing interest-free credits and grants for programmes that boost economic growth, reduce inequalities and improve people’s living conditions.
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