David Korten Quotes

The Secretary General has endorsed a propaganda exercise for international finance institutions whose policies are widely held to be at the root of many of the most grave social problems facing the poor all over the world.

The problems of the Third World—its poverty, its ignorance, its debt—never really seemed to affect Europeans and Americans. No longer. It's a little warmer than it used to be. The water is rising.

Third world kids are dying today to pay off the debt.

it must be right to suggest that all countries should use their resources so as to advance the right to development for their people in an equitable manner and that all countries should cooperate for the mutual achievement of the right to development. The alternative to such a policy framework is a Darwinian world of market-oriented capitalism with no social or human rights safety nets. How can developing countries survive in such a world?

What does peace mean in a world in which the combined wealth of the world's 587 billionaires exceeds the combined gross domestic product of the world's 135 poorest countries?

I lived with a coffee farmer called Dukale on a trip I made with World Vision to Ethiopia, and realised there's no good reason for the disparity in opportunity around the world.

I feel great identification with the developing world.

We can't end poverty if we fail to save the lives of our world's mothers.

There has long been a debate in the aid community and in Africa about how to most effectively help situations of poverty in developing nations and underprivileged communities.

My dad's main client was the World Bank, and he spent most of his time traveling to Third World countries. His particular interest lay in the eradication of poverty through development and business.

I don't think anyone sets out to malign poor people but certainly that's what we do through organizations such as the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

For a long time, rich countries have promised to reduce poverty but have failed to match their words with adequate action. Of course, some important progress has been made and millions of lives have been saved, but millions more could be saved.

I was deeply concerned then, and have become more concerned since, that unless we can deal with the questions of development and the questions of poverty, there's no way that we're going to have a peaceful world for our children.

Global poverty is falling faster today than at any time in human history.

The World Bank is just a sponge for every do-good idea of relieving poverty.

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries

Africa has no time to lose. The global economy is fast leaving our continent behind.

The United Nations believes we cannot continue to ignore 800 million people…. to solve the problem we must have two Chinas.

The impoverishment of any single people in the world means danger to the well-being of all other peoples.

We must focus on our biggest enemy, poverty. There is no single-state solution to it, and that is a noble goal.

I utterly reject the view that the Third World is doomed to poverty and starvation. Not only is this wrong, I think this attitude verges on the immoral, like thinking that slavery is an unalterable facet of the human condition so why bother doing anything about it?

Diamonds are a key component in the campaign to make poverty history.

Developing nations want to become developed nations.

I believe that the war against terrorism and the war against poverty in these times of turmoil go together. So you - when you fight one, you have to fight the other.

Well, my view before was a Western view, and I certainly understand marriage equality and civil rights, equal rights for all, but having visited developing nations and some of the poorest nations in the world, I realize how deep it goes and how much work really needs to be done to create equality for all.