Accept \u2018Smart Risks\u2019 to Help End Poverty in a Generation, says President Jim Yong Kim<\/b><\/p>\n
Kim calls for \u201ca social movement to end poverty\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
WASHINGTON, October 1, 2013 – <\/b>With more than a billion people in the world living on less than $1.25 per day, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim today said that extreme poverty was \u201cthe defining moral issue of our time,\u201d and he described how a new World Bank Group strategy would realign the global institution to help end poverty by 2030 and boost shared prosperity.<\/p>\n
Speaking at George Washington University on the eve of the World Bank Group\/IMF Annual Meetings, Kim said the Bank must be bold and not be afraid to take \u201csmart risks\u201d to support projects that have the potential to transform a country or a region.<\/p>\n
Kim pledged that he would direct more funding to fragile and conflict-affected states. He said it his hope to increase the share of IDA core financing \u2013 the Bank\u2019s fund for the poorest \u2013 to fragile and conflict-affected states by about 50 percent in the next three years. He also said that the IFC, the Bank\u2019s private sector arm, also would increase funding by 50 percent over three years for low-income and fragile states. The IFC increase could amount to more than an $800 million increase over three years; the IDA amount could not be determined until countries made pledges later in the year.<\/p>\n
Kim specifically called on the international community to give greater support to Lebanon, which has allowed more than 760,000 Syrian refugees to settle since fighting broke out in Syria more than two and a half years ago. \u201cWe need to do much more or we risk catastrophe in Lebanon,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n
In his speech, Kim said the new World Bank Group strategy \u2013 the first ever to bring together the entire organization, which includes the Bank, IFC, and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, or MIGA, which provides political risk insurance \u2014 would work toward a common purpose.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the World Bank Group, our strategy is based on the entire organization working and pulling together,\u201d said Kim. \u201cOur strategy also forces us to be selective \u2013 first, choosing our priorities and then, abandoning those activities that are not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim highlighted three elements of the strategy:<\/p>\n
Kim called for a social movement to end poverty, and he noted that interest in the issue was coalescing around the globe.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust six months ago, the board of governors for the World Bank Group laid a foundation for a social movement by endorsing our two goals and declaring that we can end extreme poverty by 2030. Now we are seeing interest from all corners. Political leaders, including President Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron, are calling for an end to poverty. Faith-based leaders are calling for an end to poverty. The One campaign, Oxfam, Save the Children, and RESULTS and many other civil society groups are calling for an end to poverty. And young people \u2013 people like yourselves here at George Washington University — are calling for an end to poverty,\u201d said Kim.<\/p>\n
Kim described his attendance at the Global Poverty Project\u2019s Global Citizens Festival in New York\u2019s Central Park on September 28, and he encouraged listeners to his speech to log on to the Global Poverty Project website — www.zeropoverty2030.org<\/a>\u00a0— and sign a petition to end poverty in a generation.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the defining moral issue of our time. \u00a0Our goals are clear. End extreme poverty by 2030. \u00a0 Share prosperity with the bottom 40 percent, and share it with future generations. We have an opportunity to bend the arc of history and commit ourselves to do something that other generations have only dreamed of,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n