Tags:
Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, FEB 7: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today suggested creation of a Global Poverty Alleviation Fund through international levy on capital flows between developed countries and all repatriations from developing nations.
The fund could be used for liquidation of all public external debts of low income countries, assist poverty alleviation programmes and enhancement of skills and increased access to finance by the poor, he said inaugurating the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit.
Vajpayee said the fund will also help in "placing technologies that save lives, increase food yields, generate renewable energies for rural areas and facilitate the adoption of clean production in the public domain for use by developing countries."
Asking multilateral and bilateral development agencies to significantly enhance their resources, the Prime Minister said this called for a far higher level of political will in industrialised countries than is manifest today.
"In particular, I would like developed countries to cooperate in speedy conclusion of international agreement on climate change".
In order to remove global poverty and ensure sustainable development, it is necessary to substantially increase the resources of governments in developing countries, he said.
UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown, President of UN University for Peace, Costa Rica, Maurice Strong also addressed the three-day on meet organised by Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI).
Expressing serious concern over glaring disparities and global inequities, Vajpayee said though industrial civilisation had led to unprecedented material wealth, it has also brought about an unprecedented imbalance between material and psychological affluence.
"The world community cannot be blind to the implications of this imbalance. The world needs to put more emphasis on the realisation of new lifestyles, driven by a set of values that emphasise compassion, cooperation and care for the environment", he said, adding poverty cannot be removed by the traditional strategy of income enhancement alone.
