Development

Corruption last year cost the world more than one trillion dollars. That is a trillion dollars we can’t use to get better health care, education, food and environment. And corruption is only part of the problem of poor governance – many countries are run ineffectively, lacking accountability, transparency and rule of law. Running countries better would have obvious benefits. It would not only reduce corruption but governments would provide more services the public wants and at better quality. It is also likely that economic growth would increase.

Ebola got most of the attention in 2014. It killed about 8,000 people. Meanwhile, over the same period of time about 3.6 million people died from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria.

The truth is that despite great progress in healthcare, much of the world is still blighted by preventable disease, with the poorest people suffering the most. The good news is that tackling these diseases turns out to be an extraordinary good investment.

El año pasado, la corrupción le costó al mundo más de un billón de dólares (1). Es decir, un billón de dólares que no podemos utilizar para obtener una mejor atención sanitaria, educación, alimentación y cuidado del medio ambiente. Un estudio demuestra que la corrupción en Honduras le cuesta a cada ciudadano 592 dólares al año. Y la corrupción es sólo una parte del problema de la mala gobernabilidad -muchos países son administrados de forma ineficaz, sin rendición de cuentas, sin transparencia, ni un Estado de Derecho (2).

Air quality has improved dramatically in rich countries over the past century. Yet air pollution is still a huge problem, especially in the developing world. It kills about 7 million people each year, accounting for one out of every eight deaths globally. But the most deadly air pollution comes from inside people's houses, because 2.8 billion people still use firewood, dung and coal for cooking and keeping warm, breathing polluted air inside their homes every day.

COPENHAGEN – Where should the global community focus its attention over the next 15 years? Health, nutrition, and education may seem like obvious choices; more surprisingly, there is a strong case for making broadband access a top priority. Consider this simple fact: Tripling mobile Internet access over the next 15 years could make the developing world $22 trillion richer. Such improvement in the lives and earning potential of poor people could indirectly help with the other challenges; after all, more prosperous people tend to be healthier, better fed, and more highly educated.

What would happen if we brought broadband internet to 3 billion people in the developing world?

El ébola ha recibido gran parte de la atención en 2014, y ha matado a unas 8.000 personas. En el mismo período de tiempo, sin embargo, alrededor de 4 millones de personas murieron a causa del sida, la tuberculosis (TB) y la malaria. La verdad es que, a pesar del gran progreso en la atención sanitaria, la mayor parte del mundo está siendo devastada por una enfermedad prevenible, siendo los más pobres quienes más sufren. La buena noticia es que la lucha contra estas enfermedades resulta ser una extraordinaria buena inversión. 

Die Millennium-Entwicklungsziele, die 2000 benannt wurden, waren ehrgeizig. Doch viele Vorhaben gingen in Erfüllung. Immer weniger Menschen leiden an Hunger. 2015 könnte das Problem gelöst sein.

COPENHAGEN – At the start of the twenty-first century, the international community made some smart and simple promises with the so-called Millennium Development Goals. The world would halve the proportion of people suffering from hunger and living in extreme poverty, achieve universal primary education, and dramatically reduce child mortality by 2015. There have been many successes, though not all of the MDGs’ targets will be achieved. 

There's a large number of proposals on how to address poverty in the post-2015 development agenda -- from more social inclusion to full employment, more happiness, increased resilience and more. A new paper argues to continue focusing on reducing extreme poverty and drop the rest, as Lomborg writes for Huffington Post.