Kofi Annan Quotes

I mean, the world has already done a big, big effort to forget debt to countries heavily indebted and with low income. And that has given good chances to countries to get out of poverty.

Energetic action on debt would make a radical difference to the prospects of many of the poorest countries in the world, at no practical cost to creditor countries.

People from the world's richest countries should be prepared to accept the burden of debt reduction for heavily indebted poor countries, and should urge their leaders to fulfill the pledges made to reduce world poverty, especially in Africa, by the year 2015.

One of the things that Africa needs, everybody seems to agree, is some measure of debt relief.

Third World nations will recognize [their] debts only so long as they're able to get them rescheduled and have money lent to them.

The only really effective means of enabling States to deal with the grave problem of poverty is to provide them with the necessary resources through foreign financial aid - public and private - granted under reasonable conditions, within the framework of international commercial relations regulated with fairness.

What is gained by debt relief and aid can be lost if we don't get a proper trade agreement in Hong Kong.

Looking at these issues as a businessman, I believe that investing in the world's poorest people is the smartest way that our government spends money.

Handouts are not going to end global poverty, but work - real work - just might.

I have dedicated many years to economic study, up to the Ph.D. level, to analyze and understand the inherent weaknesses of aid and why aid policies have consistently failed to deliver on economic growth and poverty alleviation.

World Bank is a bank that's focused on economic development and poverty alleviation.

Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts.

The only way really to influence countries, in terms of poverty, is to get them to change their policies and get them to understand what the issues are.

Trade is the all-but-forgotten weapon in the battle against poverty, but it can provide more help to the poor than aid can.

For the first time in our history it is possible to conquer poverty.

Acting on our own, by ourselves, we cannot establish justice throughout the world, but joined with other free nations, we can ... assist the developing nations to throw off the yoke of poverty.

The heart of the matter, as I see it, is the stark fact that world poverty is primarily a problem of two million villages, and thus a problem of two thousand million villagers.

We have the ability now to arrange global economic institutions so that poverty declines to a fraction of what it is now.

To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required - not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

The question before the advanced nations is not whether they can afford to help the developing nations, but whether they can afford not to do so.

You can't tackle climate change until you tackle poverty.

I don't think anybody really thinks that one should get rid of the World Bank. Reform is one thing, but getting rid of it I think would be wrong.

For the first time in human history, society has the capacity, the knowledge and the resources to eradicate poverty

The fight against hunger and poverty is also predicated on the creation of a world order that accords priority to social and economic development.

Do we have the will to make poverty history?