WP: Prof Sachs Says Job One for Prez-Elect Obama: Create US Dept of Intl Sustainable Development to Support MDGs

[Guest guest]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/06/AR2008110602996_pf.html

Job OneFirst things first, Mr. President-elect. Some thoughts on what Obama's top priority should be.

Sunday, November 9, 2008; B02

Create a new Department of International Sustainable Development

by Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute and special adviser to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

The world's richest nation dare not forget the world's poorest people. Obama's top priority should be adopting a strategy of what I call sustainable development -- a strategy that combines economic development with environmental sustainability, for the United States and for the world. Such an approach merges science and policy, thinks in terms of decades rather than years, and recognizes that solutions must be cooperative and global rather than unilateral and national.

Currently, we lurch from crisis to crisis, from food to energy to natural disaster to finance, without recognizing that these cascading shocks are interconnected. Darfur, Somalia and Afghanistan are at least as much about water scarcity, climate and population as they are about politics; even the global financial crisis was triggered, in part, by the contemporaneous energy crisis. As president, Obama will need to lead the U.S. government to address these problems holistically. As thankless as government reorganization can be, he should create a new Department of International Sustainable Development to work together with the rest of the world on the Millennium Development Goals and the interconnected long-term challenges of poverty, disease, energy, climate, water and population -- all of which are key to sustainable growth, prosperity and security.

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In peace and solidarity for bold action now,

Zeitz

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