The director of the United Nations Millennium Project called
on University of Wisconsin students to take action to fight poverty at a
unique, interactive teleconference Tuesday night.
The video conference with leading economist Jeffrey Sachs
was held by Project 40/40, an awareness and fundraising campaign for the
Clinton HIV/AIDS initiative.
The initiative seeks to partner UW’s student population of
40,000 with 40,000 HIV-positive Ugandans in need of finance for their
treatment.
“Our members of Project 40/40 believe that with
knowledge comes responsibility and that some awareness should follow
action,” said Anna Day, co-founder of Project 40/40.
Sachs said 2008 is the anniversary of the 1984 Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and the midway point of the 15-year timetable set in 2000 for
the Millennium Development Goals to improve living conditions worldwide.
“Frankly, the biggest problem is inaction,” Sachs
said. “We have such powerful tools that when we actually do things, we get
fantastic results.”
He highlighted the United Nations Children’s Fund campaign
to dispense the measles vaccine in Africa, which caused a 91 percent reduction
of measles.
“The dominant feeling, unfortunately, in our government
and aid agencies is, ‘No, we can’t,’ almost like a chant,” Sachs said, as
he continued to allude to presidential candidate Barack Obama. “Yes,
actually, we can, as somebody has said recently.”
As director of the Millennium Project, Sachs started about a
dozen “Millennium Villages” in poor rural areas to implement the
MDGs.
“[The Millennium Villages Project] helps the
communities to make critical investments to improve their livelihood, their
health and the education of the children,” Sachs said.
Sachs’ speech focused on health, education, agriculture and
infrastructure, specifically in Africa.
Sara Jerving, co-founder of Project 40/40, said Sachs has
been a constant source of inspiration to their organization.
Sachs said his most recent book, “Common Wealth,”
provides a new approach to the interconnected problems of poverty, climate
change and global population.
He said problems will not solve themselves or be solved by
one country. Solutions depend on science, technology and global cooperation,
but many people do not like the cooperative approach, he added.
“A lot of his ideas about foreign aid don’t seem to be
flushed out by the data, but on the other hand he’s a major advocate for a lot
of positive programs,” said Aaron McKean, Distinguished Lecture Series
director and economics major.
Sachs called the audience “the problem-solving
generation” and said 2025, the date to end extreme poverty, was their
homework assignment, with 2015 being just the midterm.
“Remember, it’s open book. You can work in groups — in
fact you have to work in groups — and you have plenty of time. You can take it
home,” Sachs said.
Organizer Alana Keusch said Distinguished Lecture Series and
UW Greek Week co-sponsored the speech. Various educational departments, like
International Studies, Economics and African Studies also supported the event.
Sachs concluded the video conference with a quote from
President Kennedy: “Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this
small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children’s
future, and we are all mortal.”