Addressing Global Poverty

At a meeting in May, 2002, the “Counterpart Organizations” — a congress of private business organizations throughout the world that share the objective of economic and social policies that champion growth and opportunity — determined to address jointly the question of global poverty. They were motivated by the common belief that, while global integration is a positive force, it needs to be harnessed by sound public policies to address the prevalence of dire poverty around the world.

This report is the result of that project. It consists of a series of recommendations by individual organizations among the Counterparts regarding policy areas that have the potential to alleviate global poverty. The recommendations are made by the specific organization with which they are associated and endorsed by the others who participated in the project. Background papers on many of these topics can be found through the websites indicated in this report. The global business community has the responsibility to articulate a vision of how the forces of enterprise and free markets can provide a basis for addressing human need. In this report, the Counterpart Organizations attempt to fulfill that responsibility.