FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

I want to talk today about a vision. A vision of a world that works better.  By working better, I mean a world where people everywhere are enjoying a higher and rising standard of living -- rising incomes that come from good jobs for everyone who wants one.

Let me begin by telling you the perspective I bring to this vision. From 1977 to 2001 I worked in the private sector after working 15 years in the Federal Government. During those private sector years I worked in two large multi national companies. From 1987 to 2001 I was the Chairman and CEO of Alcoa. When I joined Alcoa in 1987 we employed 55,000 people in 13 counties.

When I left at the end of the year 2000; 140,000 people worked for Alcoa at 350 locations in 36 counties. This is to establish the basis for an assertion that I know something about job creation and about the ways of life and work in many places around the globe.  As I traveled the world over the last quarter century I was struck by two things. First, and most important, the demonstrated fact that human beings everywhere, with the proper education, training, and a stable social environment, can and do perform value adding work at world competitive levels.

That means they can be paid compensation that gives them the capacity for independence and their self-determined pursuit of the good life for themselves and their families. I draw from this observation that human beings everywhere have in them the latent capacity to create a high standard of living.

The second general observation is this: In spite of the first observation, the disparity of living standards among the world's people is so large as to be practically incomprehensible.

The obvious question is: Why? Why is it, if people have the capacity to create a good life that so many billions of people exist today with little hope of the good life we know is possible. Some of you will think this is a dead end question - - a question too big to ask - - one of life's imponderables - - let's move on to something else.  I do not agree. I believe this is the question for us and our time. If you examine the economic history of the last 300 years it is easy to conclude that there is no absolute limit on world economic product.

That is to say, economic prosperity is not rooted in some people getting more by taking someone else's share. In fact, it appears that the world economic pie is limited only by our imagination -- when we back up our imagination with the necessary social institutions and structures and human beings and resources are organized to create value.

I realize this is a lofty perspective and I intend to bring it down to the ground. But, as an analytic habit of mind, I find it useful to remind myself of the purpose and potential of what we do lest we get caught up in the alphabet soup of development agencies and NGO's and government organizations as though their existence were the only objective.

Let me bring these general ideas down to the ground and talk more specifically about economic development.

Lasting economic development requires a stable social environment as demonstrated by the clear rule of law, enforceable contracts, and protection from extortionists and other forms of capital thieves. For a truly vibrant economy these conditions are not discretionary. They must be the center of attention for sovereign governments and for serious development agencies and efforts.

When these things are said in development circles, everyone shakes their heads in agreement but the real world circumstances do not bear a close relationship to this prescription. I believe until the fundamentals are in place and working, the effectiveness of development assistance is a small fraction of what it should be.

Let me presume that the actions we and other nations are taking to reform the international assistance institutions will provide this solid basis for positive change and turn to the prerequisites that every human needs in order to realize his or her potential.   My list includes three elements: clean water, good health and education.  Without all of three of these ingredients, life as we know it is impossible.  I want to turn now to our topic today - water.

Simply put: water is life.   Nothing is as essential – or as fundamental to us – as water.    Human life cannot be sustained without water.

If access to clean water defines the essence of modern civilization, then over the past decade the battle for civilization has been locked in a stalemate.  Between 1990 and 2000, about 816 million more people gained access to clean water.   At the same time, the number of people who lack access remained almost constant, as populations have grown in the developing world.   In cities, the share of people with access to water has actually declined.  Today, 45% of sub-Saharan Africans lack access to clean, safe water.  That’s about 300 million people - more than the population of the United States.  The situation is just about as grave in many parts of Asia and Latin America.

It is possible to marshal endless facts, such as these, to describe the plight of those who exist without clean water but it is not necessary to do that for you - you know the facts.

In the face of the facts of what needs to be done, the international institutions have resolved to achieve the so-called millennium goals by 2015.  In the case of water, the goal is to close half of the gap for those who do not now have clean water.  It is a stretch goal as measured by past accomplishments and yet I find myself looking at the goal and saying: what about the other half?   When will their time come?  And what kind of life can they expect between now and then?

And then I couple my questions with my experience.  I have found that people are inspired by great goals.  A great goal would be for all of the people to have clean water – and soon.  The question is how we can achieve such a great goal.  I believe a part of the answer can be found in a large scale demonstration of what can be done if we put our minds to it.  For example, let’s say we identify a country where the leadership is already working diligently on the problem but has a long way to go at the current pace of improvement.  Let’s say we identify a country with say 20 million people, half without clean water.   That would be a sufficient demonstration so that when we succeed, no one could say it was a hot-house, one-of-a-kind experience.  To really test ourselves I would propose that we set a goal to bring clean water to the people of our selected country in 24 or 36 months.

This will bring the experienced people in the development business out of their chairs.  They can tell us dozens of reasons why this is impossible.  I have already heard some of the cautions and warnings.  For example, where do you think we can get the drilling rigs that will be required?  Of course they don’t mean it as a question they mean it as a declarative statement – you can’t get the drill rigs required.  Some will say, we’ve tried crash programs in the past and they fail because there is no community ownership in a crash program and therefore, even though your intentions are good, the water sources will quickly deteriorate and we will prove again that development doesn’t work.

Some will say, we shouldn’t set ambitious goals because if we fail it will set back the work of economic development.  And some will say we shouldn’t set such ambitious goals because if we succeed people will expect too much from us.

To all of these I say its time to dare greatly.  We should pay attention to all of the reservations and cautions.  We need to learn from them and systematically plan to overcome them one-by-one.

We can succeed if we try and I believe we must try.