世界银行副行长2013世界知识论坛发言

Collaborative Knowledge, Learning and Innovation as Key Accelerators

Sanjay Pradhan, World Bank Vice President for Change, Knowledge and Learning

Seoul, Republic of Korea

October 16, 2013

It is an honor to be here, and to follow the steps of Jim Yong Kim, World Bank Group President, who spoke at this Forum last year.

I want to talk to you about ending poverty—more specifically, since this is the World Knowledge Forum, I want to talk about how a collaborative approach to Knowledge, Learning and Innovation can become a powerful accelerator in our collective drive to end poverty.

But first, I want to start with a story from my home country, India. The story is about the river Ganges.

The Ganges is a sacred river, worshipped by Hindus as the Mother Ganga. The Ganga’s waters are considered to be so pure and sacred that, when you bathe in them, it cleanses you of all your sins. The Ganga River provides 25% of India’s water resources. More than 2500 kilometers long, it is the most heavily populated river basin in the world. For 400 million people, mostly very poor people, life and survival depend on Mother Ganga every day.

But sadly, today, the Ganges is dying. Poorly planned rapid urbanization and industrialization have turned the Ganga into the most polluted river in the world. Every day, more than 250 million liters of untreated sewage goes right into the Ganga. The reality is that today, bathing in the Ganga, does not cleanse you. It makes you sick. Health costs in the Ganga basin alone are about $4 billion per year.

The Ganga problem is not just a problem of immense magnitude. It is also a problem of immense complexity. It is not simply about cleaning a river. It is about how governments regulate, how companies make their profits, how people live their lives. The Ganga problem cuts across many different sectors—agriculture, urban management, environment, to name just a few. It also cuts across many stakeholders in society and most importantly, millions of poor people depend on the river for their lives and livelihoods.

Other countries too increasingly face challenges that are complex, multi-dimensional, and crucial to improving the lives of the poor: for instance, creating jobs in the townships of South-Africa; or, providing access to water in Yemen. Those are problems that have no specific technical fixes—building roads and bridges alone won’t do. They require humility, the ability to collaborate and learn from the experiences of others, and the ability to innovate and take innovations to scale.

The challenge before us is how we can join forces and solve transformational problems of the magnitude, complexity and impact of the polluted Ganga? That question is at the very heart of the new World Bank Group (WBG) strategy.

Last April, the shareholders of the World Bank Group, its 188 member countries, endorsed two goals: to end, by 2030, extreme poverty – as measured by those living under $1.25 per day— and to promote shared prosperity—as measured by income gains of the bottom 40% of the population. Four days ago, at our Annual Meetings, they took the next step by endorsing a new WBG Strategy to focus relentlessly on achieving those goals in a sustainable manner. Achieving the goals requires that we achieve a deeper and faster impact in the lives of 1.2 billion people worldwide who live in extreme poverty, on less than $1.25 a day, and another 2.7 billion who remain poor and vulnerable, living on $1.25 - $4 a day.