The author, Sandra Granzow , June 19, 2000 Book depicts anti-poverty work of World Bank and partners. Behind every dry development statistic there is a person - or many people. Portraying the work of the World Bank and its partners, Our Dream...A World Free of Poverty aims to put flesh and blood on the ideas, hopes and victories of social and economic development. With photos of people taking action around the world, the book's purpose is to bring to life the hopes, the arduous work, and the results of programs and country strategies which are changing lives through community water systems, national education reforms, new roads, farming, and nutrition. In these stories: Farmers in India reclaim salty wastelands in a miraculously short time. Their sweat equity leads to high value crops and, at last, income.
In Morocco, because of new roads, kids and teachers can get to school, and farmers can get to market. Mothers can buy propane instead of foraging for firewood. Girls' school enrollment has tripled in a matter of a few years.
El Salvador transforms its education system from top-to-bottom while, in Bangladesh, a million girls are going to high school, a country where until the 90s, most of the females were illiterate.
In India, weighing and measuring children is the key to teaching even the most deprived families how to overcome malnutrition. Amateur theatricals and local opinion makers -- the shaman, the washerman, entertainers -- reinforce child rearing messages.
If you can't read, how do you know when the health post has Vitamin A shots for your kids? Numbered flags counting down the days are among the methods for combating malnutrition in Madagascar.
40 percent of the children in Uganda are stunted due to malnutrition. This project uses mass communication, village fairs, and training of caregivers to change childcare and feeding practices.
Six years ago, an outsider would have been murdered by the Shining Path. Now, in the high Sierras, World Bank staff are helping the Quechua Indians rebuild pre-Hispanic terraces and irrigation systems, replant decimated forests, and start women's businesses.
In Benin, community projects -- from improved farms to money-making businesses -- improve food supplies.
The villagers of Mali start by planning under their "palaver tree" and, with Bank funding, build and manage their own micro-projects.
A million Filipinos are finally getting safe and reliable water, through the efforts of local government, citizens and private companies.
Estonia's Kunda Cement Company was spewing almost 130,000 tons of dust. Now, it has cut emissions by more than 98 percent and completely changed the economy of a town. The largest gold mine in Bolivia has set up a community foundation to boost schools, medical care, sheep herding, and small businesses.
In Colombia, communities are revitalizing local institutions and build cooperation among groups previously in conflict.
After years of hyperinflation and economic chaos, Argentina has undertaken ambitious economic reforms and, at the same time, increased its commitment to social programs for the poor. The governments of Bolivia and Vietnam are placing poverty reduction at the top of their country strategies as well.
The stories in Our Dream...A World Free of Poverty convey the human meaning of partnerships, governance, participation, private sector development, and environmental protection, and the debates about social concerns vs. macroeconomics.
Our Dream...A World Free of Poverty aims to demonstrate that effective public action can make a difference to poverty in all its complexity.
Development is about putting all the component parts in place--together and in harmony.... If we act now with realism and foresight, if we show courage, if we think globally and allocate our resources accordingly, we can give our children a more peaceful and equitable world. one where poverty and suffering will be reduced. Where children everywhere will have a sense of hope. Our social agenda should begin with those elements at the very heart of ensuring opportunity at all levels of society: a good health system and an education system available for boys and girls equally, that is unconstrained by the borders of a single country, that is linked to our wealth of global knowledge. It is not at all soft to argue that these are fundamental to our foundations. As we seek to reduce the global risks of financial turbulence, it is not too much of a leap to make a connection between decent health and education systems--and the long term stability of the economic sphere.
Development is about getting the macroeconomics right--yes; but it also about building the roads, empowering the people, writing the laws, eliminating the corruption, educating the girls, protecting the environment, and inoculating the children.
This is not just a dream--this is our responsibility.
--James D. Wolfensohn
