Professor David Hulme, Executive Director of the Global Development Institute spoke at the Japan International Cooperation Agency in July 2016. The presentation links to his new book 'Should Rich Nations Help The Poor'

1. David Hulme
Executive Director
Wednesday, 27 July 2016
Japan International
Cooperation Agency
Tokyo
gdi.manchester.ac.uk

2. Introduction
1. Rich nations should help the poor
2. Foreign aid is part of this – but not the main part
3. Trade, international finance, migration and
environmental policies are central
4. Business as usual is not an option with climate
change and rising inequality
5. Contemporary context…and, how much is Japan
helping the poor?
6. Conclusions

3. Rich nations should help the poor: ethics
• Rich nations should provide support to poor
people and poor countries: two sets of reasons
• Ethics: morally the right thing to do
– Things are getting better but still intense
deprivation in an affluent world
– Moral duty: common humanity
– Moral responsibility: rich nation causality

4. Rich nations should help the poor: ethics

5. Rich nations should help the poor: ethics
“… it makes no moral difference whether the person
I help is a neighbor’s child ten yards from me or a
Bengali whose name I shall never know, ten
thousand miles away”.
- Peter Singer, 1972

6. Rich nations should help the poor: self-interest
• The well-being of rich nation citizens, their children
and grandchildren, means we must help the poor
• Problems in faraway lands can rapidly become
problems in rich countries
• Refugees, surges in migration, terrorism, climate
change, international crime and new health problems
do not recognise borders
• In an interconnected world global problems need
global responses
• But, beware rich nation duplicity

7. Rich nations should help the poor:
self-interest

8. Role of foreign aid
• Traditional answer has been foreign aid
• Successes: smallpox, polio, green revolution,
child mortality in Africa, retro-virals, others
• Failures: famous UK example of Pergau Dam
• Declining in significance: remittances, private
finance, Chinese finance
• Priority focus is on aid quality… but, for US,
Korea and Japan, also quantity!

9. Role of foreign aid
Major inflows in fragile states: remittances, aid and FDI
(constant 2011 USD million)

10. Role of other policies
• International trade: an unreciprocated trade round
• International finance: tackle illicit and illegal financial
flows; limit tax havens
• Environment and climate change: emission
mitigation; finance for adaptation; technological
transfer
• Refugees: honour UN commitments
• Migration: strategies to manage migration and
migration surges… migration and prosperity
• Security and the arms trade

11. Role of other policies: migration
According to World Bank, average
incomes in the EU are 21 times higher
than in Sub-Saharan Africa…
What would you do…stay home…or
migrate?

12. “Business as usual” is not an option
• Globalisation: flows of goods, services, finance,
people, ideas, data continue to increase – we are
connected!
• Climate change: economic growth and human
development have been based on being carbon
profligate. This cannot continue if we want a future for
humanity.
• Inequality: The 1% or the 0.1%? Inequality is rising in
most nations, rich and poor. This reduces growth and
slows down human development. Evidence it leads to
political decline, plutocracy and disillusionment.

13. Business as usual is not an option
June 2016 was the
hottest month since
records began in
1880.
It was also the 14th
consecutive month
of record-breaking
heat.
Global mean surface temperature (January-June)

14. Business as usual is not an option
Share of income of the top 1% in different rich countries

15. A Deteriorating Rich World Context?
• Brexit – UK leaves EU
• Populist right-wing movement across EU –
France, the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary…
• Donald Trump in USA
• Political polarisation - liberal, cosmopolitan
middle-class VS precarious middle class and
working class…isolationism, xenophobia
• Opportunities – rise of China, AIIB…?

16. How is Japan doing?

17. What can be done?
• Make sure that rich nation citizens hear the moral arguments
and the self-interested arguments
• Helping poor people and poor countries is the right thing to do
and we would be stupid not to help!
• International development needs joined up policies – and
trade, finance, climate change, migration
• Tackle the common problems of rich and poor nations
– Illicit and illegal finance
– Climate change
– Job creation in poor countries
– Rising inequality
• NGOs and civil society groups: reconnect with citizens. Stop
functioning largely as professional lobby groups
• A ‘war of ideas’ – ONE WORLD

18. Thank you!