Publication: Address to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, New York, October 28, 1971
Loading...
Files in English
192 downloads
Other Files
38 downloads
Published
1971-10-28
ISSN
Date
2020-01-09
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Robert S. McNamara, President of the World Bank Group, reports that the Bank is operating at a high level of activity. During the first decade, the developing nations succeeded in adding a substantial increment to their very low levels of material wealth and their average rate of growth was appreciably higher at the end of the decade than it had been at the beginning. He suggests that development is not merely the size of the economy, but the quality of life for each member of society. The pursuit of this objective has deep-reaching implications. It is no longer sufficient to strain simply for growth of output. Development has to be seen as a composite of many factors that come together into an effective relationship. It’s a task of great subtlety and complexity. He says that the problems of population, nutrition and employment need higher priority. He recommends a twofold strategy to address these problems. One, efforts to encourage and assist family planning need to be intensified. Second, development programs need to be reshaped to take into account that population is growing rapidly. He concludes that if the work of the U.N. and Bank makes it possible that fewer children die and fewer parents grieve, that there is less poverty and more hope, that there is less waste and more realization of life’s potential, this will be a better and a more peaceful world.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“McNamara, Robert S.. 1971. Address to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, New York, October 28, 1971. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33158 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Address to the U.N. Economic and Social Council(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1970-11-13)Robert S. McNamara, President of the World Bank Group, discussed two issues: the operations of the Bank, both for the past fiscal year and for the period covered by the Five-year Program, and the relationship of the Bank to the rest of the U.N. system. The Five- Year Program was developed with the objective of doubling the Bank Group's operations from 1969-1973, as compared with 1964-1968. Two years into the Program, the interim objectives are being met. Economic progress remains precarious and sterile without corresponding social improvement; the Bank intends to give attention to both.Publication Address to the U. N. Economic and Social Council(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1972-10-18)Robert S. McNamara, President of the World Bank, reviewed the state of development, and the relationship of economic growth to social equity. First, he summarized recent Bank activities, particularly those which bring the Bank into working relationships with other parts of the U.N. system. Second, he assessed the current state of development in the member countries. Third, he analyzed what he believes to be one of the most critical issues of the entire development process: the relationship of social equity to economic growth. He concluded that the international development community has a grave responsibility to the hundreds of millions of individuals throughout the disadvantaged world for whom these issues are not mere abstractions, but day-to-day realities. He believes, collectively, that touching those lives, and rendering them more livable is possible.Publication Address to the Columbia University Conference on International Economic Development, New York, February 20, 1970(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1970-02-20)Robert S. McNamara, President of the World Bank Group, discussed the deliberations on the report of the Pearson commission. They preface the second development decade. The report addresses the issues on which a sound, sensible strategy for the seventies must be fashioned. But to be frank, in field after field, we have more questions than answers. To provide a solid foundation for development strategy, the Bank plans an expanded program of country economic missions, including representatives from the UNDP.Publication Address to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, United Nations, NY, December 5, 1968(1968-12-05)These are the prepared remarks of Robert S. McNamara, President of the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, and the International Development Association (IDA). He declares that our common enterprise is to drive back poverty, to lift living standards and to enhance the dignity of man. The Bank intends to lend twice as much in the next five years as in the previous five. He discusses the Bank’s lending in Asia. He discusses new geographical accents. The Bank and IDA are now ready to finance state-owned development banks; and training of managers and agriculturalists. He discusses putting population policy at the center of future strategy.Publication Address to the Board of Governors, September 25, 1972(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1972-09-25)Robert S. McNamara, President of the World Bank, reported on the Bank’s operations in fiscal year 1972 and reviewed the progress of the Five-Year Program for 1969–73. He assessed the current state of development in member countries and outlined the program for the five years 1974–78. He explored the central issue of the relationship of social equity to economic growth. Given the shortfall in official development assistance, the debt problem, and the procrastination of the developed countries in dismantling discriminatory trade barriers, the Second Development Decade’s 6 percent growth target is not going to be met by many nations. The most persistent poverty is that of the low-income strata, roughly the poorest 40 percent of the total population in all development countries—who are trapped in conditions of deprivation. He argues that an urgent task is to reorient development policies to directly attack the poverty of the most deprived 40 percent of the population. Governments must achieve this without abandoning their goals of overall economic growth. Greater priority is needed to establish growth targets in terms of essential humans needs: nutrition, housing, health, literacy and employment, even at the cost of some reduction in the pace of advance in certain narrow and highly privileged sectors whose benefits accrue to the few.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Morocco Economic Update, Winter 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03)Despite the drought causing a modest deceleration of overall GDP growth to 3.2 percent, the Moroccan economy has exhibited some encouraging trends in 2024. Non-agricultural growth has accelerated to an estimated 3.8 percent, driven by a revitalized industrial sector and a rebound in gross capital formation. Inflation has dropped below 1 percent, allowing Bank al-Maghrib to begin easing its monetary policy. While rural labor markets remain depressed, the economy has added close to 162,000 jobs in urban areas. Morocco’s external position remains strong overall, with a moderate current account deficit largely financed by growing foreign direct investment inflows, underpinned by solid investor confidence indicators. Despite significant spending pressures, the debt-to-GDP ratio is slowly declining.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.