10. Speeches of World Bank Presidents [collection under construction]

376 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24239

Sub-collections of this Collection

Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 10 of 12

Third Annual Conference of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank, Bern, May 9-11, 2002: Keynote Speeches

( 2002-05) Wolfensohn, James D. ; Wade, Abdoulaye ; Moore, Mike

On May 9-11, 2002 the members of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB) met in Bern, Switzerland for their Third Annual Conference. The meeting took place in the Swiss Parliament to mark the tenth anniversary of Swiss membership in the Bretton Woods institutions. The attendance of 104 Members of Parliament from 42 countries helped to firmly establish the Parliamentary Network of the World Bank (PNoWB) as a parliamentary sounding board. The meeting underscored the important role that Parliamentarians play in international development. In the various sessions of the conference two themes recurred: implementation and governance. The participants of the conference were challenged by World Bank President James Wolfensohn to focus on implementing the international consensus that emerged from the conferences in Doha and Monterrey and leading up to Johannesburg. He urged Parliamentarians to invest in their relationships with their governments to be able to play an active role in implementing these development initiatives. At the same time, participants discussed the role that Parliamentarians could play to strengthen governance structures in developing countries to create an environment conducive to the success of development policies.
Remarks at the Second World Water Forum: From Vision to Action

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000-03-22) Wolfensohn, James D.

James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, noted that in many parts of the world, access to water distinguishes the poor from the non-poor. Lack of access to water is synonymous with poverty throughout the developing world. In Cote d'Ivoire and Benin more than 70 percent of people now have access to safe water. The Bank must look at the institutions to see how one can give stakeholders a real stake, how one can use water more efficiently, and how one can make service providers more accountable. He discussed technological and financial innovation and the challenge of inclusion. The Bank’s overarching goal remains to bring together all the elements that will enable to eradicate the human, social, and economic degradation of poverty; all the elements that will help to build a peaceful and secure world for future generations; all the elements that promise people healthier and more prosperous lives.
Challenges Facing the Bank in the 21st Century

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000-03-14) Wolfensohn, James D.

James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, discussed the challenges facing the World Bank. The Bank is now working and trying to deal with the questions of poverty and equity. While poverty is rarely about the lack of one thing, but instead many, the bottom line is that poor constantly live with hunger. Poverty has important psychological dimensions such as powerlessness, noiselessness, dependency, shame, and humiliation. The poor lack access to basic infrastructure such as roads, transportation, clean water. The poor rarely speak of income but instead focus on managing assets and the environment, social and human.
Rethinking Development: Challenges and Opportunities

( 2000-02-16) Wolfensohn, James D.

James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, discussed his vision for development, addressing these topics: poverty and the development agenda; rethinking the approach; the global trading system and the development agenda; and the partnership imperative. He concludes that the Bank must work to realize an ambitious vision if we are to go forward together into a new century in which the long pent up aspirations of the poor of the earth are to have the chance for fulfillment that they deserve.
Coalitions for Change

( 1999-09-28) Wolfensohn, James D.

World Bank Group President, James Wolfensohn addressed the Board of Governors. In the past year the Bank launched a new initiative—the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF). The aim was to bring the social and the structural aspects of development together with the macroeconomic and the financial so as to establish a much more balanced and effective approach. The Bank will work with the broad development community—the United Nations, the European Union, bilaterals, regional development banks, civil society, and the private sector—to build genuine partnerships. The CDF is now being piloted in 13 countries. The general experience reviewed that strengthening the organization, human capacity, and the structure of the state, both at central and local levels, is the first priority to reduce poverty. The speaker also called for a coalition for change in the new international development architecture in the face of globalization.
Development: A Coin with Two Sides

(International Herald Tribue, 1999-05-05) Wolfensohn, James D.

James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, writes that development economics is the discipline that addresses the world's most enduring problem: persistent and widespread poverty. Within this deprivation is another dimension: hundreds of millions of girls and women whose lives are diminished and shortened by inadequate economic means and discrimination in social status and medical attention. The end of the cold war has been accompanied by a growing recognition of the importance of political, social, and economic participation, by widespread demands for human rights and gender equity, and by an emerging globalized economy. This offers an unprecedented opportunity to make development work. There is a need for effective and impartial legal and justice systems, with protection of and positive support for rights and freedoms of various kinds, a well-organized and supervised financial system, effective social safety nets, and essential social programs.
The Other Crisis

( 1998-10-06) Wolfensohn, James D.

This is a speech given by James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, at the Annual Meetings held in Washington D.C., on October 6, 1998. It sets out the Bank's role and mission in dealing with the human crisis that has received so little attention in the media. Dealing with that crisis requires long-term work on both the social and the structural agendas. The speech also lays out a new "development framework." Such a framework would allow countries to look at the totality of change necessary to make development inclusive and sustainable.
Remarks at the Council of Foundations

( 1998-04-28) Wolfensohn, James D.

James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, discussed the issues that link the United States to other countries: health, migration, trade, peace and stability, energy, food, and crime and narcotics. The responsibilities of foundations do not end with our cities and communities. The job the Bank does can only be done on the basis of partnership with the governments, with the other multilateral institutions, with the private sector, but most particularly with civil society. It is crucial that the foundation organizations in the country that have the experience, that know about volunteerism, about taking things in their own hands, diversity of interests, different points of view, and experience, should come together on the global issues.
The Santiago Consensus: From Vision to Reality

( 1998-04-19) Wolfensohn, James D.

James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, discussed a new consensus on economic and social policy in this hemisphere that has been taking shape. This new consensus is one based on recognition of the paramount importance of what I called a few months ago in Hong Kong "The Challenge of Inclusion" — the challenge of ensuring that economic progress can become a reality in the lives of all the people of this region, especially the tens of millions who until now been very largely left behind. Chile has made commitments to a new model of Open Regionalism. The consensus goes beyond economics and finance, into the social dimension of development. It is time to retire once and for all that tired old phrase of the so-called Washington Consensus. In addition to financial resources, the Bank is determined to harness the incredible power of new information technologies, and a new spirit of openness and partnership, to make knowledge of global best-practice in development accessible to all. We are already engaged in building the internal architecture of a "Knowledge Bank." The Bank of the future will be committed to pulling its weight in translating the Santiago Consensus into reality at both the national and the regional level.
Address to the Overseas Development Council

( 1998-03-19) Wolfensohn, James D.

James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, reflected upon the Asian financial crisis. What lessons are there that need to be learned? How do you position the Asian crisis? What went wrong? It is very hard to generalize; there are problems in the banking sector, and the private sector. Yet, the achievements of Asia are real. Fiscal management is excellent. Savings rates are high. Primary school enrollment is near 100 percent. This is no Latin American-style crisis. The Bank is working on two paths to restore confidence in these economies. One is financial and the other is social. There is a need for change in the supervision and control of the banking systems, and for transparency in the corporate sector. The social implications of the crisis are that it is the standard of living of the poor that has suffered the most. Inequality, migration, and unemployment are rising at scary rates. The Bank believes that together with the governments we can look forward to a real future in Asia.