101384 Appeal of Conscience Foundation Awards Dinner Paul Wolfowitz President, World Bank Group New York , March 27, 2007 Katie Couric: Paul Wolfowitz has had exactly the type of career one would expect from a student who wrote his 1972 Doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago on “water desalination in the Middle - East.� Since 2006, Mr. Wolfowitz has served as, President of the World Bank Group. Prior to this appointment, he spent more than three decades as a public servant, ambassador and educator, including 24 years in government service under seven US Presidents. His practical experience in the developing world involves three years in Indonesia as US Ambassador, Assistant Secretary of State for the East Asia. and Deputy Secretary of Defense. Please welcome the President of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz. Paul Wolfowitz: Katie, thank you for the introduction, Rabbi Schneier thank you for inviting me. I’m not completely sure why after all the eloquence of tonight that these people need one more speech, but it’s a chance for me to talk about my present mission, which is fighting poverty, particularly in Africa. but before I do, first of all, I’d like to pay a tribute to Rabbi Schneier. He mentioned that it’s difficult to know what title is used when introducing Richard Holbrooke. I had a slightly similar dilemma when I was with the American embassy in Indonesia 20 years ago. The Dean of the diplomatic core at the time, was a wonderful Philippine Ambassador Ambassador named Manuel Young who actually had been exiled to Indonesia because, as a General in the Philippine Army, he too had a conscience and too much of a conscience for Marcos to tolerate, so he was shipped out of town and I asked him “Would you prefer that I call you Ambassador or General?� He said “Well, you can just call me Manny, but if you want to use a title, I would kind of like General.� He said “I know a lot of Generals who have become ambassadors, but I don’t know any Ambassadors who have become Generals.� I must say Rabbi, Rabbi is a very distinguished title which is not conferred honorarily and you’ve earned it. And you’ve earned it also with your commitment to the fight for religious tolerance. Maybe it is because of my own background, but I have long felt that it is one of the most important missions in the world and I could not agree more strongly with what you say—that the greatest crime against religion are crimes committed in the name of religion. And it is a real privilege for me as an American Jew to represent our country in Indonesia with the largest Muslim population in the world and to be able to count as among my best friends, great Indonesian Muslim thinkers like the first democratically elected President of that country, Abdurrahman Wahid. We need more people like that. [Applause] I also appreciate your faith in this great country. My father and my mother’s parents were lucky to come here. We’re all lucky as American Jews to be in this great tradition which was started by George Washington who, when approached by the Jewish community of Newport for help and protection, in order to answer in his letter, he said, this is a country that gi ves “to bigotry no sanction.� One could not have a better, more open statement from the father of this country and it makes one very proud to be an American. [Applause] I’m also privileged and honored to be able to speak on the occasion when two great individuals have been recognized—people that I have known and admired for many years. I still remember pretty clearly the occasion, and almost the day on which I first met Richard Holbrooke, as a matter of fact, was also the day on which I first met John Negroponte. I was working at the Pentagon at the time, and Bromowitz who was then the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and he said that the enemies had just invaded Cambodia; I’m going to Holbrooke’s office to talk about what we’re going to do, why don’t you come with me? And I came. I remember being absolutely stunned by the brilliance of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, one John Negroponte. I was also impressed by Holbrooke,. and very impressed by Bromowitz and the three of them. And I think more particularly, and again with a lot of courage, and a lot of people in the US Government fighting, did put together one of the great humanitarian achievements of the 20th century. As a matter of fact, one of the great—well it wasn’t a great century for humanitarian achievements—but lets just say a great humanitarian achievement that rescued two million people from Indo-China through what is correctly described as an ingenious and difficult diplomatic exercises in the United States. So, that is among many things for which Dick should be justly proud. Winston Churchill once said of Clement Attlee that ‘he is a modest man with a lot to be modest about’ and I don’t think anyone has eve r accused Dick of being a modest man, but I don’t think anyone has ever said that he doesn’t have a great deal to be proud of and we properly honor you tonight. I want to thank you additionally for your leadership in the fight against the plague of HIV/AIDS. I’ve known Lord Browne for a somewhat less length of time, but he was on my advisory Board at John Hopkins and I remember talking with him over an extended period of time about his decision to go out and begin talking about the challenge of global warming as a leader, not just of a major corporation, but certainly the first of any energy company to go out and talk about it. It was not a simple thing, it took a lot of courage and I, among many things, I admire John for that courage. I was really privileged to be invited to his house for dinner one Sunday, and to meet that amazing women who was John’s mother; she wasn’t just a refugee and asylum seeker, she was an Auschwitz survivor. I think she was in her eighties when I met her, she was still a life-force, it was just, really quite amazing and it made me think about both of John’s parents. John’s father was a British Army officer, and I am inferring a lot here and I hope I am not embarrassing you, but I thought what an amazing event for a woman, not long out of the worst concentration camp imaginable, to meet a British Army officer and the two of them falling in love. Pretty remarkable people, both of them and I think testimony to a bridge across faith and across differences. And it is an amazing sign. [Applause] One part of the world that cries out to our conscience today is Sub-Saharan Africa; 300 million people live there. Roughly half the population struggle to survive on less than a dollar a day. That is not just poverty, that is extreme poverty. As we go back to our comfortable beds tonight, we should think about those voiceless millions who may not even have beds at all. They go to sleep hungry, sick, and uncertain about their future. For many, it is literally a matter of life and death. HIV/AIDS claimed the lives of 200 million African adults in 2005 and the number has continued to grow. But AIDS is not the only plague that is stalking Africa. Every 30 seconds, an African child dies of malaria, a preventable disease. That’s nearly 3,000 a day. Think about it, one World Trade Center every day from a disease that has been wiped out in so many parts of the world, including Washington DC. Nearly 40 million African children are still not in school, and all of that after $300 billion roughly of international aid has gone to Africa over the last several decades. Some people look at that juxtaposition of misery and money and say, Well, Africa must be hopeless, a land that will be perpetually tormented by wars and famines and corruption. They say there is no point in sending more aid that will only go to dictators like the notorious Mobutu, the late dictator of what was then called Zaire and today is the Democratic Republic of Congo. But that excuse, like Mobutu himself, prepares to be consigned to the dust bin of history. Across Africa, we are starting to see hopeful signs of projects, projects that reflect the energy, the talents, and the ambition of Africa’s people, which I have seen now first hand over -and-over again on four visits to 14 countries during my time as President of the World Bank. Most recently, I have just come back from visiting Ghana, Burundi—Burundi by the way which never had enough peace to have a World Bank President visit—,the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa. Ghana recently celebrated a joyous event, the 50th Anniversary of Independence. The first few decades for Ghana were not so good, but today it is a vibrant democracy, and one of Africa’s better economic performers. For the last 20 years, I don’t k now how people realize this, Ghana has sustained a growth rate 4.5% or better and last year, its growth exceeded 6%; that would be a record of course to be envied by any developed country, but for a poor country it is still not enough. Ghana should do better and can do better. But this progress is making a real impact in the fight against poverty, and it is providing inspiration for the region. In the early 1990s, more than half of Ghana’s population was living in extreme poverty; by 2002, that number has dropped to just a third, and is continuing to fall. Congo, which I also visited, is a different story, but still can become a hopeful one; just emerging from the devastating war thanks to, in large measure, the intervention of International Peacekeeping Forces. Congo has had a democratic election and is taking its first steps on the path out of poverty. Today, however, the average Congolese lives, imagine this, on thirty cents a day. President, Kabila of Congo has high expectations for his country’s future. He was at that same celebration in Ghana, and he was inspired by what he saw. “In Ghana,� he told me, “I saw what Congo can become.� Today in Africa instead of a race to the bottom, we are starting to see African countries striving to follow the path of their more successful neighbors. You see in Africa, and this is an important thing, a new generation of leaders who take seriously their responsibility toward their fellow citizens. You see many Africans literally putting their lives on the line in the fight for transparency and accountability to ensure that public resources are used for public benefit. One such hero is a man named Nuhu Ribadu; he is the Executive Chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), he is courageo usly leading his government’s fight against corruption, undeterred by the murder of two of his staff. Nuhu Ribadu has said it eloquently: ‘you can’t make poverty history, unless you make corruption history.’ And there are many other heroes like him. They are the people who are steering Africa toward a more hopeful future. They are calling on our collective conscience for help, and we owe them a generous response. What is particularly impressive in Africa today is that some countries, Rwanda in particular, are rebuilding literally on the ashes of genocide. Rwanda indeed is not just a god performer, it is an excellent performer. Rwanda has been growing since the genocide of 1994 at the rate of 8% a year and better, which is stunning. Similar progress I think may be starting to unfold in Liberia, a country which was nearly destroyed by 20 years of civil war, until the international community finally intervened. With initial assistance from US marines, followed by an African peacekeeping mission, the UN peacekeepers stepped in and helped oversee free and fair elections. Given a chance to choose their President freely and given a choice between a soccer star and a woman committed to fighting corruption and promoting economic reform, the Liberian people voted overwhelmingly for reform, and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is now the first woman President of any African country. [Applause] As President of the World Bank, I am very proud to say that her Finance Minister, Antoinette Sayeh, is another remarkable woman and another hero and she is a World Bank alumni. She left her family and a rewarding career in Washington to help rebuild a shattered society. These heroes need and deserve our support. They need to show their people that they can produce results quickly—not in the six years that is normal for institutions like mine, but in six months that is necessary to meet peoples’ needs. So, at the World Bank we are changing our procedures in order to deliver our support much faster. We have a new “Rapid Response Policy� designed to help us move quickly in environments where peace is trying to take hold and where reformers need to show results urgently. We have already pledged $180 million to rebuild Congo’s capital Kinshasa so their people have access to clean water, healthcare, better roads and schools —and quickly—in months, and not in years. For the last half century, the World Bank Group’s soft lending arm—we call it IDA, the International Development Association —has provided credits and grants to the poorest countries. Last fiscal year, IDA support reached a record high of nine and a half billion dollars, and half of that —more than half—was dedicated to Africa. With that assistance, IDA has helped 600,000 Ethiopian children go to school. It has provided better nutrition for more than a million children in Madagascar, and it has helped reduce the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Uganda. Today, we are bringing support to Southern Sudan, building on the Peace Accord. And with more support from rich countries, and particularly United States, it could do much more. But it would impossible to speak of progress in Africa, especially on this occasion, and fail to speak of that stain on the world’s conscience that is Darfur. In Darfur today, there is no peace. There is genocide. And there is a war that is spilling over into neighboring countries, and threatening the fragile stability of central Africa. The response of the international community toward the tragedy of Darfur has so far been disappointing, to put it charitably. And the longer we wait, the harder it will be to rebuild lives and restore hope. In Rwanda, 13 years ago, nearly one million people perished in the Genocide. If the international community had heeded the call of conscience, those lives could have been saved; when we see what is happening in Darfur today our conscience should be heavy. But the progress elsewhere in Africa calls on our conscience for support. It is worth remembering that 50 years ago, after the devastation of the Korean war, many experts thought that South Korea’s future was hopeless. Today, we know from Korea’s spectacular success and that of other developing countries, that leadership and good policies make all the difference. But leadership and good policies alone are not enough. Leadership and good policies need resources to succeed. South Korea received, just from the World Bank alone, more than $20 billion in assistance for its development. African countries need that kind of help today. Americans are generous people, but we can afford to give more. Polls show that the average American believes that roughly 25% —25 cents of the average tax dollar— goes to foreign aid. The truth is much closer to a penny. The good news is that the average American believes that we should be giving about 14 cents of every dollar in foreign aid, so we have a long way to go up; a lot of opportunities to improve and I hope we will. * * * This organization started in cooperation with Martin Luther King in 1964. I still remember going to Washington the year before, for that amazing march on civil rights, and hearing Martin Luther King speak from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that famous speech “I Have a Dream� which even those of you who were born long afterwards have probably heard. But it is worth remembering also at the beginning of that speech, Dr. King reminds us that no individual can expect to advance on his own. “Many of our white brothers’� he said “have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.� Ladies and gentlemen, we too cannot walk alone on the path to peace, freedom and prosperity. We cannot turn our backs on the pain and poverty that consumes entire nations in Africa and the other parts of the world. The appeal of conscience is our best hope for bringing those millions trapped in poverty on to the path of progress and giving them the opportunity to shape their own destiny. Thank you. [Applause]