In his third visit to Vancouver in recent years, former U.S. president Bill Clinton encouraged Vancouver’s business and community leaders to continue to support capacity-building initiatives in poor and developing countries.
Such initiatives shouldn’t be seen as charity, but as an important way to secure the stability of the global economy, he said in a speech on Thursday.
“We have increasing inequality and this is not sustainable. In order for the global market system to work, people need to feel they can have a piece of it and they can do better and their kids can do better.”
Invited by the Vancouver Board of Trade’s Rix Centre for Corporate Citizenship and Engaged Leadership, Clinton spoke to a 1,500-strong audience at the Centre for the Performing Arts.
He noted some of the key problems developing nations face include a lack of basic infrastructure and skills.
In Haiti, for example, even before the earthquake, half of the homes didn’t have electricity and half of the country’s children don’t go to school. While Haiti has received $9 billion in promised aid from around the world, Clinton said it’s important for the public and private sectors and concerned citizens supporting various non-governmental organizations to help the Haitian government build the country’s capacity to participate in the global economy.
“No matter how many people we put in school, how many sick kids we see, how many new health clinics and roads we rebuild … within a matter of years, it will be gone again unless we build the capacity for them to live their own lives and not need us anymore except as partners.”
He cited Rwanda as an example, where capacity building has continued to improve the country’s standard of living. Between 1998 and 2008, the country’s per-capita income quadrupled.
“Their goal is by 2020 to not take $1 of foreign assistance from any country, but welcome you as tourists, investors and partners.”
He also referenced the Clinton-Guistra Sustainable Development Initiative, which was created with Vancouver mining executive Frank Guistra and aims to develop the social and economic infrastructure of mining communities.
In a question-and-answer session with former B.C. finance minister Carole Taylor, Clinton praised Vancouver for having one of the highest building standards for energy efficiency in North America. He also noted that there are opportunities to learn and partner more with the U.S.
“We ought to think about more stuff we can do together. There’s lots of things we can think about.”