This is absolute poverty: a condition of life so limited as to prevent realization of the potential of the genes with which one is born; a condition of life so degrading as to insult human dignity–and yet a condition of life so common as to be the lot of some 40% of the peoples of the developing nations. And are not we who tolerate such poverty, when it is within our power to reduce the number afflicted by it, failing to fulfill the fundamental obligations accepted by civilized men since the beginning of time? … There are, of course, many grounds for development assistance, among others, the expansion of trade, the strengthening of international stability and the reduction of social tensions. But in my view, the fundamental case for development assistance is the moral one. The whole of human history has recognized the principle-at least in the abstract-that the rich and the powerful have a moral obligation to assist the poor and the weak. This is what the sense of community is all about.
[Robert S. McNamara, President of the World Bank (1968-1981) in his address to the World Bank, September 1973]
