Well, excellencies, friends, as you hear from [the] introduction, the only thing that upset me this evening was not being introduced by Bono as an artist, but being recognized for my work in debt. And I hope that next time you’ll correct that my friend. I have a 30 minute speech which I thought you might like to hear, but which repeats a great deal of what you’ve already heard. But given the time I think it might be more appropriate for me to acknowledge my friends Richard and Jürgen and all those that made such a contribution. And particularly recognize the work that is being done by the Global Business Coalition. Let me be brief and let me tell you what we think in our institution. Firstly, that AIDS is not a singular problem. The issue of AIDS is a terrible problem. But that you need to think about it in the context of global poverty and global inequality. We have five billion people out of six in the developing world/. And the billion in the rich world have 80% of the assets and the people in the five billion have 20%. The first problem is inequality and poverty, and that issue ties into the issue of poverty and it ties into the issue of peace, as Bono said. If people have no hope, they will do many things. if they have hope and they have opportunity, they will not go out and shoot you—they will protect their lives. So the first thing is, you need to look at scourges such as HIV/AIDS not alone but within the context of the overall issue of development and poverty. The second thing you have to know is that if we’re going to do anything about it, no single organization can deal with it, no single government can deal with it, and we have to have a partnership. A partnership of governments, of private sector, of civil society, of church groups and trade unions. And so the role of global business, which we’re celebrating tonight—and it is a celebration—is a recognition that business must take its responsibility. And it must take it because if businesses don’t take responsibility, as we’ve seen in Africa, they lose their people because they die. Families get disrupted. Markets get disrupted. Countries get disrupted. And so it is in the interest of business, from a business point of view, to deal with the issues of AIDS as a scourge which exists in that continent. I might add only to what Bono said that the problem exists in Africa; we have emerging significant problems in Eastern Europe, China and India. It is very conceivable that within five years the AIDS victims in India will exceed the whole of Africa, and we don’t know what is happening in China, as Richard Feachem and Peter Piot might well tell you. The next thing I want to say is that we’re having some success in putting money together, but the issue of delivering on AIDS, delivering help to every person, is an issue which goes beyond money. What is being asked of business is to participate in the human drama of AIDS. The one thing tonight that has really hit me is that Dick gave Jürgen a picture of a man, a single man, whose life Jürgen Schrempp is responsible for. Multiply that by 14,000 people a day who contract AIDS and eight and a half thousand people who die. I have been in sex districts in India talking to prostitutes for whom treatment is out of the question because they know not of it, and who tell you that they’re already dead. I’ve been in orphanages where children not only have no hope in terms of economics, but no hope in terms of life, because drugs will not reach them. We have made progress. One of the big progresses that’s been made is to reduce the cost of retrovirals from $10,000 a year to three to four hundred dollars year, a difference of $25 down to 50 cents a day, a 98% reduction in cost. But we’re reaching so few people that the World Health Organization is talking of the objective of by 2005, reaching three million people. The so called Three by Five initiative. Even in Europe, where we have one and a half million people suffering from HIV/AIDS, 10% are getting retrovirals. What we need is not just the cash that comes with business, what we need is human involvement. People suffering with AIDS need to be freed of the stigma. They need to be freed of fear. They need to be able to talk. And for those that don’t have AIDS, one needs to be able to talk about prevention, about condoms, about safe sex, which in many countries is difficult to do. If you could imagine in my own organization, the World Bank, we are offering full, health and other services for our people. We are offering it in a discreet way. And one of our big problems, even in our organization, is to get people to admit that they have AIDS. What is needed from business is more than money. It’s personal involvement. It’s caring. It’s making sure that people are free to hope, and then all of you might get a picture which has the picture of one person whose life you’ve saved. That is what this is about. It isn't the issue of corporate philanthropy, it’s the issue of taking responsibility. And that is what I believe is the issue that we’re committed to in this global communion, and it’s the issue that business must address. So let me thank you for the opportunity to be here, and let me say that so far as our institution is concerned we have an arm called international finance corporation, and we also have our own institution that is ready to help you with technical help, with support, with advice, with experience, at low cost, so that you can benefit from our experience in the private sector. We look forward very much to being your partner. And now let me get to the most important part of the evening, which is the giving of recognition to those institutions that have already taken the step. And I’m told that our colleague from Anglo-American needs to get a plane, so he’s been promoted to the first reward. And let me say here that you have in the books that are in front of you a description of each of the companies and what they’ve done, so let me not read extensively what they are, but let me just remind you: Anglo-American, in the year 2002, decided to provide antiretroviral therapy at the company’s expense to all employees progressing to AIDS. This was a difficult and risky decision for the company to take, with some 30,000 HIV positive employees in Southern Africa, the problem was enormous. By the end of January 2004, more than 11,000 employees were receiving treatment and 94% of them were back at work. Many would have died without this leadership, and that is why Anglo-American is receiving the leadership award this evening. [Award was presented to Tony Trahar, the Chief Executive Officer, Anglo American.] |
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