Copenhagen Consensus Concludes
Copenhagen Consensus' expert panel of economists has determined that HIV/AIDS, hunger, free trade and malaria are the world's most urgent problems.
Combating HIV/AIDS should be at the top of the world's priority list. That is the recommendation from the Copenhagen Consensus 2004 expert panel of world-leading economists. About 28 million cases could be prevented by 2010, the cost would be $27 billion, with benefits almost forty times as high.
The panel assigned the highest priority to new measures to control and treat HIV/AIDS. Spending assigned to this would yield extraordinarily high benefits. Although the costs are considerable,they are tiny in relation to what can be gained. Furthermore, the scale and urgency of the problem are extreme, especially in Africa where entire societies are threatened with collapse.
"Fighting disease is a good investment", expert panelist Bruno Frey said today. "Disease causes nine-out-of-ten preventable deaths in developing nations among children and adults. Diseases that are under control in the industrialized world kill many people in developing nations. HIV/AIDS is an illuminating example of that."
Hunger is number two on the expert's list. Diseases caused by iron, zinc, iodine and vitamin A deficiency can be resolved by providing micro-nutrients. This would have an exceptionally high ratio of benefits to cost. The experts recommend investing $12 billion to resolve this problem. "Today 3.5 billion people lack iron. It is extremely important to do something about malnourishment, especially among children. I give that proposal a very high priority," said Nobel Laureate Professor Douglass North, Washington University in Saint Louis.
Free trade is number three on the expert list. The costs will be very low. The benefits will be extremely high - namely up to $2400 billion a year. "Free trade will benefit both rich and poor countries," said Nobel Laureate Robert Fogel, University of Chicago. "Trade barriers do not require a big investment to produce a large return. Here, we need political will and the return will be huge. The entire world's economy will benefit from free trade, and more wealth will mean that we can afford to solve more of the world's greatest challenges." Besides HIV/AIDS, malnutrition and free trade, options to ameliorate malaria and the lack of water and sanitation were highly ranked by the "dream team" of economists. The experts have in total discussed 38 possible solutions to ten of the world's greatest problems.
What is interesting to us at Global Growth is that the cost benefit ratio from free trade is so great, it has by and large mainly political costs but will benefit developing countries hugely, possibly generating the extra resources to solve other critical problems.
Combating HIV/AIDS should be at the top of the world's priority list. That is the recommendation from the Copenhagen Consensus 2004 expert panel of world-leading economists. About 28 million cases could be prevented by 2010, the cost would be $27 billion, with benefits almost forty times as high.
The panel assigned the highest priority to new measures to control and treat HIV/AIDS. Spending assigned to this would yield extraordinarily high benefits. Although the costs are considerable,they are tiny in relation to what can be gained. Furthermore, the scale and urgency of the problem are extreme, especially in Africa where entire societies are threatened with collapse.
"Fighting disease is a good investment", expert panelist Bruno Frey said today. "Disease causes nine-out-of-ten preventable deaths in developing nations among children and adults. Diseases that are under control in the industrialized world kill many people in developing nations. HIV/AIDS is an illuminating example of that."
Hunger is number two on the expert's list. Diseases caused by iron, zinc, iodine and vitamin A deficiency can be resolved by providing micro-nutrients. This would have an exceptionally high ratio of benefits to cost. The experts recommend investing $12 billion to resolve this problem. "Today 3.5 billion people lack iron. It is extremely important to do something about malnourishment, especially among children. I give that proposal a very high priority," said Nobel Laureate Professor Douglass North, Washington University in Saint Louis.
Free trade is number three on the expert list. The costs will be very low. The benefits will be extremely high - namely up to $2400 billion a year. "Free trade will benefit both rich and poor countries," said Nobel Laureate Robert Fogel, University of Chicago. "Trade barriers do not require a big investment to produce a large return. Here, we need political will and the return will be huge. The entire world's economy will benefit from free trade, and more wealth will mean that we can afford to solve more of the world's greatest challenges." Besides HIV/AIDS, malnutrition and free trade, options to ameliorate malaria and the lack of water and sanitation were highly ranked by the "dream team" of economists. The experts have in total discussed 38 possible solutions to ten of the world's greatest problems.
What is interesting to us at Global Growth is that the cost benefit ratio from free trade is so great, it has by and large mainly political costs but will benefit developing countries hugely, possibly generating the extra resources to solve other critical problems.
