March 2001

SEMINAR: ETHICS AND DEVELOPMENT

DEBATE ON ETHICS: AN URGENT CHALLENGE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

IDB promotes high-level dialogue among senior officials, ministers, religious and community leaders, intellectuals, philosophers, and former presidents

The spread of poverty and inequity and the widening rift between rich and poor in Latin America have heightened the need for meaningful discussion on the ethical dimension of socioeconomic development in the region.

The breakdown in the social fabric, the loss of confidence by the public in their institutions and the institutional capacity to address critical problems, domestic and social violence, and rampant crime and corruption pose ethical dilemmas that permeate all areas of activity.

At the same time, the deepening of democratic systems and growing citizen participation in the region have spurred debate on the ultimate goals of development and the social responsibility of the main stakeholders, with a view to bringing about decisive, effective action.

At the initiative of its President, Enrique V. Iglesias, the IDB is sponsoring a broad-based dialogue among governments, international organizations, civil society, religious organizations, the private sector, academics, and eminent thinkers, that focuses on ethical concerns and development problems in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The first seminar on "Ethics and Development" took place in Washington, D.C. in December 2000. A second seminar is to be held at the Mapocho Station Cultural Center on March 15,2001, in conjunction with the annual meetings of the IDB and the Inter-American Investment Corporation in Santiago, Chile. Prominent members of the international community will attend the seminar, which will examine the interconnections between ethics and economics.

The principal guests at the first seminar, which was sponsored by the Government of Norway, included Nobel Prize laureate Amartya Sen; French philosopher Edgar Morin; the Secretary of the Vatican Peace and Justice Commission; Monsignor Diarmuid Martin; former presidents Patricio Aylwin of Chile, Raul Alfonsín of Argentina, and Luis Alberto Lacalle of Uruguay; economist Joseph Stiglitz; and the Director of the Pan American Health Organization, George Alleyne.

Some 200 participants, including ministers, politicians, eminent thinkers, businessmen, religious leaders, leading academics, and representatives of civil society, took part in the debates to promote public discussion and establish a working network on ethics and development in the region. The proposed network will bring together institutions and leading experts in this field with a wealth of experience to stimulate a multidisciplinary debate.

Patricio Aylwin noted that poverty and inequality in Latin America have reached levels that "not only pose a serious obstacle to the development of our countries and a dangerous threat to social order but are also shocking from an ethical standpoint".

"The pressing ethical concerns spawned by globalization, technological progress and the problems of development, and the existence of vast segments of society mired in poverty raise questions about the ultimate aims of development and its priorities, valid means of achieving them, and the desirable profile for society", added Bernard Kliksberg, event coordinator.

The great ethical dilemmas that come to the fore in designing development programs, shaping economic and social policies, setting priorities, and allocating resources in the development process were discussed in six sessions dealing with the relationship between ethics and economics from a spiritual, philosophical, economic, educational, and cultural perspective and in terms of international relations and the ethical responsibility of key stakeholders, governments, political and business leaders, and the heads of civil society organizations.

Successive sessions addressed the different views, beginning with the perspectives of religious cosmovisions and philosophy with presentations by Msgr. Diarmuid Martin; Rabbi Israel Singer, director of the World Jewish Congress; Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economic advisor to Former President Bill Clinton; Edgar Morin, research director of France's National Center for Scientific Research; and Professor Peter Singer of Princeton University.

A prominent American ethicist, Singer noted that "a new ethical dimension needs to take root across the entire spectrum, from international financial institutions to nations and individuals. Those who decide the fate of millions living in absolute poverty must come to terms with their attitude to inequity and the egoism in their personal lives".

Stiglitz took a critical look at a number of current ideas on economics and development, Msgr. Martin outlined the reasons for the church's preferential commitment to the poor, and Morin stressed that "development viewed solely in economic terms does not eliminate human and moral underdevelopment".

In another session, Walter Altmann, president of the Latin American Council of Churches, emphasized that, for the church, poverty is a palpable experience that touches communities and individuals victimized by their living conditions. "The visible symptoms of the problem are the huge migratory flows, the extraordinary increase in insecurity and violence, and the despair caused by unemployment. The church's conscience cannot rest easy in the face of these conditions afflicting the poor".

President Iglesias said, "Latin America does not deserve its present distressing levels of poverty and inequity" and underscored the need for a concerted effort by all sectors to bring the ethical dimension into development.