March of the Billionaires
IMF Blog, December 1, 2012
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- Authors: Jeremy Clift
- Published: December 1, 2012
Development: philanthropy's growing role
- Philanthropy is helping transform the developing world by providing mosquito nets, building schools, and providing basic sanitation.
- Rich donors—many of them from computer software, entertainment, and venture capitalism—are devoting fortunes to defeating poverty and improving lives, supplementing and in some cases surpassing official aid channels.
- Notable philanthropists mentioned: Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett, Aliko Dangote, George Soros.
- Areas financed by philanthropists include:
- new vaccines
- maternal health
- learning and libraries
- environmental protection (e.g., buying Amazon rain forest)
- Philanthropy is backing innovations and new approaches that are changing lives and building dreams.
- The new issue of Finance & Development magazine examines targeted giving and social entrepreneurship.
- Date of the piece: December 1, 2012.
Pushing from the front: catalytic philanthropy and cooperation
- Bill Gates: “Philanthropy’s role is to get things started…We used foundation funds to set up a system to make market forces work in favor of the poor.”
- Gates argues catalytic philanthropy can make a big difference: “Good ideas need evangelists. Forgotten communities need advocates.”
- Bill Clinton: emphasizes collective responsibility and cooperation.
- “Our world is more interdependent than ever, and our effectiveness as global citizens will be judged by what we do to create an environment that allows everybody to do better and lift themselves up.”
- Advocates networks of cooperation between government, business, and civil society to solve pressing problems.
- Describes humans as among the “great cooperators” and highlights human capacity to “overcome adversity and seize opportunities when we choose cooperation over conflict.”
- Key theme: philanthropy complements public and multilateral efforts and can catalyze broader cooperation.
Replacing the MDGs: reflections on global development goals
- The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) consist of eight U.N. development targets, including halving extreme poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, and providing universal primary education, with a target date of 2015.
- MDGs have served as a blueprint agreed by all the world’s countries and leading development institutions and have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.
- Looking ahead: development economists are debating successor frameworks.
- Nemat Shafik (IMF) writes that any successor must “reflect global aspirations and arise from a rich consultative process” and “embrace a broader understanding of development—one that is relevant for all countries, rich as well as poor.”
- Profile of Jeffrey Sachs by Prakash Loungani:
- Sachs campaigned for debt relief for developing economies.
- In 1999, the Group of Eight countries (G7 plus Russia) committed to $100 billion in debt cancellation by the end of 2000.
- Bono’s description of Sachs: “When this man gets going, he’s more like a Harlem preacher than a Boston bookworm.”
- Clinton reiterates: “The good news is we can all do something, big or small, to advance opportunity.”
Source: March of the Billionaires — Jeremy Clift, December 1, 2012.
Content in this bundle
- Point of View: The Power of Cooperation -- Finance & Development December 2012
- People in Economics: A Project in Every Port -- Finance & Development December 2012