Access a PDF of the speech, Any Global Strategy Against Poverty Will Be Misguided and Incomplete
CGD President Nancy Birdsall delivered these remarks on Jan. 7, 2006 at an American Economic Association Round Table titled "Grand Strategy Against Global Poverty." In it she first describes the current "Grand Strategy" (the Millennium Development Goals and the Monterrey Consensus), then argues that "any global strategy will ultimately be misguided, because it's inherently contradictory to have a strategy at the global level when what you need is action and implementation at the country level."
That being the case, she asks, what role is there for the rich countries, and for an organization such as the Center for Global Development, which focuses on rich world development policies and the international development framework? The answer, she says, is that rich countries should "first do no harm," that is, they should avoid hurting poor people and poor countries by, for example, curbing greenhouse gasses that cause global warming, because of the very high welfare costs that warmer temperatures and higher sea levels will impose on poor people.
Beyond this, she says, the rich world should take a greater leadership role in dealing with coordination failures at the global level. This includes investing in global public goods such as vaccines for diseases that are prevalent in poorest countries, investing in a Green Revolution for Sub-Saharan Africa, and imposing costs on polluters of the global atmosphere.
The Round Table was organized by Economists for Peace and Security (EPS). James K. Galbraith, chair of EPS, presided. Participants included: Birdsall, Richard Jolly (University of Sussex), Amartya Sen (Harvard University), and Joseph E. Stiglitz (Columbia University).