Anti-poverty advocate spurs UN action
By Kim Young-jin
Staff reporter
With the 2015 deadline for the U.N. anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) looming, many question the feasibility of the timeline, especially given the tremors from the financial crisis.
Established by world leaders in 2000 under the leadership of former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, the MDGs include ambitious categories such as halving absolute poverty, establishing world-wide primary education and increasing access to clean water.
Dho Young-shim, a longtime advocate of poverty eradication, is among those who doubt that the deadline can be met. But don’t call her a skeptic — the tireless anti-poverty campaigner believes it is more important than ever to fight for the cause. And she’s at the frontlines of the charge.
“Realistically, it will be difficult. But the deadline doesn’t mean anything,” Dho, a former lawmaker, told The Korea Times in Seoul, Thursday. “Just because 2015 arrives, does that mean poverty will be gone from the Earth? No. But the efforts will continue and you always want to have a goal to work toward.”
Dho, who leads a Seoul-based U.N. initiative for sustainable tourism, is part of a high-profile group handpicked by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to galvanize action on the goals ahead of a major MDG summit slated for September in New York.
Co-chaired by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the group includes luminaries such as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates.
Dho, who has engaged in anti-poverty work for 15 years, mostly in Africa, said the group’s efforts will take a two-track approach: holding wealthy countries to prior commitments and helping underdeveloped countries firm up strategies to work toward the goals.
“Promises aren’t good enough anymore,” she said of the G8 countries, which have fallen well short of their commitment made five years ago to double aid to $50 billion by this year. “Promises are not going to feed people. It’s time to deliver.”
Though she rubs shoulders with some of the world’s most famous philanthropists — the group also includes Jeffrey Sachs and Ted Turner — Dho, 63, says her humble roots in Korea have driven her fight against poverty.
“I was three years old when the Korean War (1950-53) broke out. If you look at some of the photos here from 1950, they are not much better than photos you see of Africa now,” she said.
“Of course, the situation is very different, the terrain is different. But there’s a common thread, and that is that I was poor 50 years ago and they are poor now. So I always felt it was the least I could do (to fight poverty).”
Korea’s meteoric rise from the rubble of the war — the per capita GDP was $82 in 1961 — gives it the responsibility to take a heftier role in the cause, Dho believes.
“We are now the 13th largest economy in the world. But we are not yet doing as much as we need to do,” she said. “And the rest of the world sees this. But they also know we are trying.”
Dho said that by fulfilling its commitment to contribute 0.25 percent of its GDP toward development assistance, the country will take a huge stride to upgrade its international image. She hailed President Lee Myung-bak for establishing its role as a bridge between developing and developed countries.
“We are very unique in the history of the world in that we have gone from poverty to wealth in a mere 40-year span,” she said. “So it’s not only with money that Korea can contribute, but also by sharing our knowledge and experience.”
The role will be consolidated at the G20 summit in Seoul slated for November. “When all these global movers and shakers come here for the summit, they will come to understand that we have overcome poverty and ask, ‘how did you make it?’” she said.
“And I think we have the answer, if countries are truly serious about working with us.”
Before heading to the U.N. headquarters in New York in September for the MDG summit, Dho will split her time between the advocacy group and her U.N.-affiliated organization, Sustainable Tourism for Eliminating Poverty (UNWTO ST-EP).
The organization helps communities, especially in Africa, harness the power of tourism to help fight poverty by helping to build infrastructure and providing educational services. It has also built libraries and maternity wards throughout the continent.
The former National Assembly veteran seems to have found her niche outside of the political realm, and, despite challenges such as perhaps not meeting the MDG deadline, she is continually rejuvenated by the fruits of her labor.
“I represent the people who can’t afford to spend a dollar a day,” she said. “When I go to Africa, the trips aren’t political. I go when I am asked, when there’s a project I can do. Then when I return, I see the change, and that’s the greatest reward.”