Tuesday 13 January 2015

Excerpt From "The Politics Of Exclusion" by Michelle Bachelet


The world will reach a turning point in 2015. We have known this would be so since 2000, when 189 countries pledged to make progress on eight Millennium Development Goals {MDGs) over 15 years. There have been important improvements in most of these. Progress has been greatest in the area of poverty and hunger: the aim of reducing extreme-poverty rates by 50% was reached in 2010. Nonetheless, one out of every eight people in the world still suffers from hunger and 1.2 billion people continue to live in misery.

Two big MDG shortfalls remain: the need to make progress in education worldwide and the need to ensure the sustainability of our environment. So 2015 will begin with mixed feelings: happiness for advances made in most of the MDGs and a sense of urgency to pick up the pace so that these objectives become realities as soon as possible.

... In this new economic cycle we should draw on the lessons learned from our recent experience. The most important is that the market alone is not enough to guarantee progress or the stability of economic systems, much less the wellbeing of citizens worldwide.

Development is not defined solely as a high GDP per person. True development involves sustainable growth, inclusion, social cohesion, governability and the broadening of democracy. It goes hand in hand with diversity, transparency and accountability. It requires freedom, but also social justice. It is synonymous with caring for the environment and respecting human rights. It needs markets that prosper thanks to productive innovation and are not based on speculation.

The coming year will provide a test of countries' willingness to commit themselves to these development demands. It will be a key year for confirming that in future we should strive for greater equality.