Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of
The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of
Sustainable Development, and Professor of
Health Policy and Management at Columbia
University. He is also Director of the
UN Millennium Project
and Special Advisor to United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the
Millennium Development Goals, the
internationally agreed goals to reduce
extreme poverty, disease, and hunger by the
year 2015. Sachs is internationally renowned
for 
his
work as economic advisor to governments in
Latin America, Eastern Europe, the former
Soviet Union, Asia and Africa, and his work
with international agencies on problems of
poverty reduction, debt cancellation for the
poorest countries, and disease control. He
is a Research Associate of the National
Bureau of Economic Research. Sachs has been
an advisor to the IMF, the World Bank, the
OECD, the World Health Organization, and the
United Nations Development Program, among
other international agencies. During
2000-2001, he was Chairman of the Commission
on Macroeconomics and Health of the World
Health Organization, and from September 1999
through March 2000 he served as a member of
the International Financial Institutions
Advisory Commission established by the U.S.
Congress.
Professor Sachs was named as one of the 100
most influential people in the world by
Time Magazine in 2004 and 2005, and the
World Affairs Council of America identified
him as one of the 500 most influential
people in the United States in the field of
foreign policy. In February 2002 Nature
Magazine stated that Sachs "has revitalized
public health thinking since he brought his
financial mind to it." In 1993 he was cited
in The New York Times Magazine as
"probably the most important economist in
the world" and called in Time
Magazine’s 1994 issue on 50 promising young
leaders "the world's best-known economist."
In 1997, the French magazine Le Nouvel
Observateur cited Professor Sachs as one
of the world's 50 most important leaders on
globalization. His syndicated newspaper
column appears in more than 50 countries
around the world, and he is a frequent
contributor to major publications such as
the New York Times, the Financial
Times of London, and The Economist.
Prof. Sachs is the keynote speaker at the 18th
World Congress of Soil Science in July. The
IUSS Deputy Secretary General Alfred
Hartemink read his book (click
here for a review of the book)
and asked him some questions on the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), soils
and the IUSS.
1. How important is the role of science in
achieving the MDGs?
The MDGs have the potential to change the
world, not because they represent the good
intentions of the world, but because they
are actually achievable. They are
achievable precisely because we already have
the scientific knowledge and the technical
know-how to meet the Goals. Fighting hunger
depends on the scientific advances of soil
science, plant breeding, nutrition, and
other disciplines. Public health sciences
are vital for the progress against disease.
Advances in ecology and environmental
engineering will play a critical role in
enabling the poorest of the poor to gain
access to vital infrastructure such as safe
drinking water and sanitation.
2. Do you think that the donor community is
sufficiently appraising the sciences, and do
you think that the sciences sufficiently
contribute to the MDGs?
The donor community still has a long way to
go in applying good science to achieving the
MDGs. Most donor agencies have inadequate
links with the scientific community. Often,
politics and ideology rather than scientific
evidence cloud the responses to the MDGs.
Consider malaria, for example. There is
ample evidence that the free distribution of
long-lasting insecticide-treated bednets (LLINs)
is a quick, low-cost and equitable way to
reduce malaria incidence and mortality. Yet
some donors still insist on selling the
nets, a process known as “social marketing,”
despite overwhelming evidence that social
marketing achieves lower coverage rates over
a much longer period, and often fails to
reach the poorest of the poor. The malaria
community has raised this problem for years,
but its concerns have still not been
adequately heeded.
3. In your opinion, how important are poor
soils as the fundamental root cause for
poverty in many parts of the world?
Soil degradation and soil nutrient depletion
are at the core of low agricultural yields
throughout sub-Saharan Africa and parts of
South Asia. Africa’s rise out of extreme
poverty will begin with an African Green
Revolution that raises agricultural yields
much closer to potential. Such a Green
Revolution will require that the world help
Africa to tackle the problem of
nutrient-depleted soils. The Hunger Task
Force of the UN Millennium Project, headed
by Professor Pedro Sanchez and Dr, M. S.
Swaminathan, put great stress on enabling
the poorest of the poor farmers to gain
access to vital systems of soil nutrient
management – both through chemical
fertilizers and agroforestry methods.
4. Is soil science contributing to
achievement of the MDGs, and do the IMF and
World Bank also sufficiently recognize the
importance of soils and soil science?
Soil scientists have raised their voice with
increasing urgency to call on the IMF and
World Bank to revise the agricultural
policies of the donor community to address
the soil crisis of smallholder farmers in
Africa and Asia. For two decades, the World
Bank and IMF have looked on passively
despite the obvious fact that the poorest
farmers were unable to access fertilizer,
and were thereby mining their soils of
nutrients. This soil mining has by now
contributed to a continent-wide crisis in
Africa. There must be a return to a subsidy
system, in which the poorest of the poor
farmers are helped to gain access to vital
soil nutrients. Without that, the food
crisis in Africa will continue to be
horrific.
5. What can the ordinary soil scientist do
to help achieving the MDGs?
Soil scientists working in the field can
help to meet the MDGs by working with
communities on strategies to raise food
yields and agricultural incomes through
improved soil management. Soil scientists
involved in research can contribute to the
MDGs by focusing on developing new and
cost-effective techniques to help the
poorest of the poor grow more food while
preserving soil quality. This can include
new systems of diagnosing soil quality as
well as improved approaches to tillage and
soil management generally.
6. Should the International Union of Soil
Sciences have a Working Group focusing on
MDG activities?
The IUSS could indeed contribute to the MDGs
by creating a working group to help the
world community to understand and address
the growing soil crisis in many of the
world’s hunger hotspots, and to support
practical approaches to science-based
management of soils in order to improve
agricultural productivity and to fight
hunger.
Internet sources on Jeffrey Sachs
Homepage
http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/about/director/
Millennium Villages Project
http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/mvp/about/people.html
http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/mvp/
Millenium Development Goals
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
