President of Center for Global Development Nancy Birdsall Urging Worldís Richest Nations To Continue Helping Developing World by John Shaw Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development, said the global response to the devastating tsunami in South Asia is encouraging and important, and demonstrates heartfelt compassion for the suffering of millions of people. But she added that this response should not distract the worldís richest nations from their continuing efforts to help poor nations achieve a better standard of living for their citizens. "The outpouring of generosity is a good thing. It reflects an awareness of how global our system is and our greater proximity to people in faraway places," Birdsall said in an interview at the centerís office near Dupont Circle. "But itís very important to translate this response into something more predictable and long term. There is a tsunami every 11 days in the poorer countries due to entirely preventable deaths from just malaria and diarrhea. I hope we can also channel this outpouring of generosity to fantastic programs that we know can be made to work in other countries." Birdsall said poor nations usually suffer far more from natural disasters than do rich nations because of their fragile infrastructures. As an example, she noted that relatively few people died in Florida as a result of several destructive hurricanes in 2004, but more than 10,000 people were killed in Central America when Hurricane Mitch tore through the region. "Many more people die in poor countries than die in comparable disasters in the rich countries," she said. "The calamity is that there are no building standards or codes, the water systems are vulnerable, the infrastructure is not there, the warning system is not there. Some of these problems, hopefully, will be addressed." Birdsall is the founding president of the Center for Global Development, an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing global poverty and inequality and making globalization work for the poor. Engaging, determined and passionate, Birdsall has had a long and distinguished career in development. Before launching the center, she served for three years as a senior associate and director of the Economic Reform Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. At Carnegie, she focused on globalization and inequality, as well as reform of international financial institutions. From 1993 to 1998, Birdsall served as executive vice president of the Inter-American Development Bank, the largest of the regional development banks, where she oversaw a $30 billion public and private loan portfolio. Before joining the bank, she spent 14 years at the World Bank, working in policy, research and management positions. Her final post at the World Bank was as director of the Policy Research Department. A prolific writer, Birdsall is an author, co-author and editor of more than a dozen books and monographs, including, most recently, "Delivering on Debt Relief: From IMF Gold to a New Aid Architecture." Birdsall helped found the Center for Global Development in 2001, working with Edward Scott, a Silicon Valley technology entrepreneur committed to eliminating global poverty, and C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Institute for International Economics. A major focus of the centerís work is to encourage the U.S. government and other industrial countries to develop more effective programs to bolster development in poor countries. "After spending 20 years trying to tell developing countries what to do, I find it very exciting to tell my government, other governments and important global institutions what they can do to help promote development," Birdsall said. The center seeks to identify alternative policies that promote equitable growth and participatory development in low-income and transitional economies. In collaboration with civil society and private sector groups, the center tries to translate policy ideas into tangible reforms. It works with other institutions to improve public understanding in industrial countries of the economic, political and strategic benefits to promoting improved living standards and governance in developing nations. Birdsall said the center offers high-quality research into key issues of development policy, such as the effectiveness of development aid, global health, education, trade and migration. The center also publishes issue briefs, supports major studies, hosts events, and has a Web site packed with studies and research. Birdsall said the center wants to get its work into the hands of U.S. policymakers, their counterparts in the industrial world, development scholars, media outlets and the general public. "We are the only group working on development that focuses on the policies and practices of the rich countries, especially but not only the United States, and the global system and the global institutions that are incredibly important," such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the United Nations and the World Health Organization, Birdsall explained. "The World Bank does very good work on what developing countries do. We are concerned with what the World Bank should do." Birdsall said development should be thought of as tangible improvements in the conditions of peopleís lives in such areas as health, education and income. Over the past 50 years, she noted, there has been more global progress in reducing poverty and improving health and education than at any other time in history. Over this time, diseases such as smallpox and river blindness that once afflicted millions of people every year have almost been eradicated. The average life expectancy worldwide has increased from 44 to 59. More children now attend school, and the average number of years of schooling has risen from three years to six years in Latin America and from three years to nine years in Asia. Incomes in poor countries have tripled, although this compares with a 13-fold increase in Western Europe and a 17-fold increase in the United States. But there is still much more to be done, Birdsall said. Every year, 6 million children die before their fifth birthday from chronic hunger and related diseases. Fourteen million children around the world have been orphaned by AIDS. One million people die every year from malaria, a preventable disease that has been virtually eradicated in rich countries. "Development is a success. For the first time in human history the absolute number of poor people declined in the last five years. Thatís partly because some poor and large countries like China and India have dynamic and growing economies," Birdsall explained. "But there are a large number of countries with close to a billion people that are not benefiting from globalization. They are not able to get on the bandwagon. They have the wrong assets, often one or two commodities such as coffee or cocoa or even oil that donít create incentives for better education and higher skills for the people. We are losing the gains in terms of overall human welfare if we donít figure out what to do in these settings," she added. Birdsall said she is especially concerned about the development struggles in Africa, Central Asia and Central America. One of her passionate convictions is that it is in Americaís self-interest to help the worldís poor acquire the skills and resources necessary to accelerate their economic and social development. She said this is consistent with the nationís professed values and can also improve its national security and economic wellbeing. According to Birdsall, a comprehensive U.S. foreign policy that makes development a priority would include generous development assistance programs, sound trade policy, debt relief and a strong private sector response in investment and technology. "Development is the third leg of the Bush administrationís national security strategy. Itís there and has been quite well put. Itís now a matter of making it operational and not forgetting about it when immediate needs such as Iraq and Afghanistan are pressing," she said. "Sept. 11 was a wake-up call that there are countries that can create problems for American security and we should be more engaged and understand them better." Birdsall pointed out that the United States allocates less than 1 percent of its federal budget to assistance to other countries and that the largest recipients are strategic allies. The poorest nations, where people earn about $2 a day on average, receive about $3 per citizen each year from U.S. development assistance. "On foreign aid the United States is getting better, but from an incredibly low base. The U.S. is st ingy. Stingy is the right word. And itís not the case when you add private contributions that the U.S. looks a whole lot differently. Thatís a myth," she said. "But itís better than it was in the 1990s, and the Bush administration has brought about the first increase in the amount of foreign aid in the last couple of decades. We shouldnít minimize that," she added. "What we know from research is that the best combination for increasing the amount of foreign aid is having the same party in Congress and the White House. And Republicans do better than Democrats. This would probably surprise people." She credits the Bush administration for pushing to boost U.S. funding for global AIDS/HIV programs and for creating Millennium Challenge Accounts. Birdsall noted that the Millennium Challenge Accounts program "is designed to work in countries that are not likely to be havens for terrorismópoor countries with good governance." Seeking to broaden the development debate, the Center for Global Development has developed with Foreign Policy magazine a Commitment to Development Index. The premise of this index is that in assessing the development polices of 21 rich countries, it is necessary to consider policies in a number of areas, such as foreign aid, trade, immigration, investment, environment, security and technology. The top-ranked nations in the 2004 index were the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Germany, France and Finland. Birdsall said this index has provoked a vigorous debate on what rich nations can do to promote development and has even prompted some nations to adjust their policies to score better on the index, which has gained a great deal of attention around the world. She said that open and fair trade policies in the industrial world, for example, are crucial for poor nations. "If we would open our markets and reduce our agricultural subsidies, we could make a bigger difference to the poor countries in Africa than years of foreign aid." Birdsall said the center works on important long-term projects while also keeping an eye on the global political calendar. For example, it has been gearing up for months to have reports and studies ready for several important global events this year: the Group of Eight meeting this summer in Great Britain, the United Nations September summit with world leaders and the world trade talks in Hong Kong in December. "We want to be there with serious, credible work," she said. Birdsall is also determined that the center works on issues that are important but are not always in the headlines, such as migration and debt relief. She said the challenges and opportunities that large-scale migration presents to global development and poverty reduction are profound. "For development we have to help create the agenda. Itís not necessarily going to be in the papers that afternoon. And we want the issue of migration in its development sense on the international agenda," she said. The center has a staff of 30 and an annual budget of about $7 million. "We have a world-class staff," Birdsall said. "We have first-rate, rigorous scholars who have passion and energy and want to make a difference in the world. These are rare, precious finds." Birdsall said she is proud of the center and delighted to be presiding over it as it becomes more influential. "I feel like Iíve found my calling. I enjoy management and research. I like being the leader. Itís much more fun that I anticipated. And I like the product. I feel strongly about selling development." John Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.