REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON - World Bank President Jim Yong Kim had three formulas for every country in the world to alleviate poverty. First, the developing countries must accelerate its high growth rates as shown in the past 15 years must accelerate.
Second, Kim warned that growth had to be translated into poverty alleviation and job creation while at the same time the growth also must be inclusive and curbing inequality. ''And third, we must avert or mitigate potential shocks, such as climate disasters or new food, fuel, or financial crisis,'' he explained in a press conference at IMF Headquarters in Washington, on Thursday, as reported by Elba Damhuri from Republika.
According to Kim, better growth also means more reforms to underpinned the strong developing-country growth as shown in the past 15 years. That means eliminating bottlenecks; more investment in infrastructure, ensuring that the poor also get benefits of the growth, as well as more investment in education and health care.
The world also must address climate change with a plan that matches the scope of the problem. Kim warned that climate change was not only an environmental challenge but also a fundamental threat to economic development. The world must take bold action now, otherwise a disastrously warming planet threatens to put prosperity out of reach of millions people and destroy decades of development.
''At the World Bank Group, we are stepping up our mitigation, adaptation, and disaster risk management works. Some 130 countries have asked the World Bank for assistance in climate-related works,'' Kim said.
The Bank's president emphasized that the measure to achieve these poverty goals also must be far more effective in fragile and conflict affected states. The IMF now hoped to pour more funds on fragile states under its concessionary lending fund, the International Development Association, or IDA.
''If we hope to meet our goals of ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity, we must be successful in fragile states,'' Kim noted.