Official opening of the International Student Festival in Trondheim

8 March 2003

Ms. Hilde F. Johnson, Minister of International Development

Challenging Attitudes: A Precondition for Change and Development

Dear friends,

The question posed at the end of the clip you just saw reads: "Do you accept that 35 million people have fled conflict and persecution?"

I ask all of you as I ask myself – do we accept this?

• Do we accept that six million children in the South starve to death every year?
• Do we accept that 125 million children have no access to basic education?
• Do we accept that the richest 5 per cent of the world’s people earn 114 times more than the poorest 5 per cent?

No. The answer is no, no and no! We will not accept that this continues. We want change!

I am pleased to have been invited to ISFIT again. ISFIT is a catalyst for change. ISFIT is a cultivator of political awareness and initiative. Being here brings back good memories from my student days. When time was more readily available. When the urge to explore the world was at its peak.

To me, it was essential to be able to grow up and be educated within an environment of freedom of thought and of expression. Everyone should have the right to question, to seek answers, to challenge attitudes. Science and knowledge can only be furthered by questioning and challenging "so-called" established facts.

As students you have the opportunity to combine rigorous intellectual work with the impatience, enthusiasm and curiosity of the young. These are exactly the qualities needed to bring about change and to make new and good ideas work.

A well-known Christian prayer goes like this: " Oh, Lord… Give me strength to change the things that I cannot tolerate. Give me patience to tolerate the things that I cannot change. And give me wisdom to tell one from another." We can debate forever where the wise balance, lies – but I believe we can change a lot. I know you do, too.

The good news is that our entire world wants change. Every nation, every world leader has signed up to the Millennium Goals to be reached within 2015 – and all governments will be held accountable to them. The eight MDGs are a checklist for a gigantic international effort to eradicate poverty. Let me mention some crucial targets

• halving extreme poverty by 2015,
• ensuring primary education for every child by 2015,
• reducing child mortality by two thirds by 2015,
• reducing maternal mortality by three fourths by 2015,
• halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria by 2015, and
• halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015.

The goals have been set – the work remains to be done. We need each other in this endeavour. You are gathered here to be agents of change. To be confronted and challenged. To challenge attitudes. Your own – and your neighbour’s.

Students have proven to be important change agents in many countries. Students also make change happen in the long run – historical shifts are to be expected in countries where education becomes a tool for the many. This happened in the western world in the sixties and the seventies. It led to lasting changes in the relationship between power elites and ordinary citizens – it led to women’s empowerment and a change in family structure. Most importantly, education is a necessary tool for economic growth and poverty reduction. Education is job number one.

And it is one of the most important Millennium Goals. Education is basic skills – which are necessary to increase welfare, to combat disease. But education must be more – education must be an agent of change. Learn about the roots of poverty and strife. See the possibilities for change, and act on them.

I often say that poverty must be fought on several fronts. Internationally we have to push for just solutions for debt-reduction, trade and investment. The second front in the fight against poverty is good governance. Institutions must be in place to enforce the rule of law and set rules for the market. Institutions to enforce human rights are required. Statistical tools are needed in order to make the right decisions on the economy. And, of course, additional resources through development assistance are necessary in a broad and coherent front against poverty.

Although I work with the toughest issues confronting us today – issues such as poverty, hunger and disease – I am an optimist. Why? Because everywhere I go I feel, see and hear change. A change of attitudes. Even the most sceptical or cynical among us now realise that the price to be paid for ignoring poverty and injustice is too high. This is why there is widespread commitment to increasing international development aid. OECD statistics show that these commitments amount to a 30 per cent increase by 2006. This is why the needs of poor countries are moving closer to the centre in international trade negotiations.

We also see a change in attitude in the fight against corruption. For far too long corruption was considered taboo, as something close to "untouchable". The term cleptocracy was invented by analysts, but for various reasons corruption was simply kept off the political agenda. Then, some impatient agents of change set up the organisation Transparency International in 1993. After 10 years, the movement is global and the fight against corruption is on the agenda. We have reports, we have access, we have the tools. What we need to do now is to change the attitudes in each country, in each company, in each public service office.

Again we need to challenge attitudes – towards democracy. Democracy is not a luxury. Democracy is not an automatic solution, but a necessary ingredient. Democracy is a must to combat poverty. It is only in a democracy that people can demand their rights. It is only in a democracy that the abuse of power can be challenged.

Challenging attitudes is the key to change. Be changemakers. Do not be content.

Look at our friends from Zimbabwe – who are challenging unjust power. I, for one, hope they achieve real change.

Today we are celebrating the 8 ^th> of >March, International Women’s Day. I was tempted to convey a traditional congratulatory greeting to the women present – it is a local custom. I will refrain though. In the field of development, women’s empowerment should not be seen as a struggle between men and women. Women’s empowerment is a necessary tool in the fight against poverty. Women are essential to development.

It took time before the men in dark suits in the boardrooms of the development agencies and in the UN General Assemblies accepted this as a hard fact. Challenging and changing attitudes took time. Women were there, toiling with the household tasks. Men held the power. But two years ago, all world governments, the World Bank and the IMF agreed that the empowerment of women was imperative. It was chosen as one of the crucial Millennium Goals that the world has set for itself in order to eradicate poverty. This is no small achievement. For all of us.

But take a look around. We have a long way to go, a very long way. Changing attitudes where it matters most – on the ground, in national governments and parliaments, in education, in the workplace – is the challenge facing you.

The younger generation must make the change. Many of you are the leaders of tomorrow. You must relentlessly continue the fight against corruption, the fight for democracy, human rights and the empowerment of women. In short: the fight for development.

But perhaps most important, the fight for peace. If you want peace, fight for justice. Fight for tolerance. Not tolerance of abuse of power, of bad governance, of poverty. Tolerance of each other, of the "other". Acceptance that the other matters just as much as I do. A precondition for cruelty is to divest the other of his or her humanity. When we see attributes instead of humanity, alienation and dehumanisation begin, and even the best among us can do things we would otherwise not dream of doing. When she is a Catholic, a Muslim, a Jew, a Tutsi, a disabled person, and not a human being.

This is why I am a believer in dialogue. Because we need to see each other, hear each other, know each other. And remember, it is as important to understand as to be understood – as important to comfort as to be comforted. This is not enough, but it is necessary.

Remember the beautiful simplicity of the Declaration of Independence issued by the breakaway British colonies in North America: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." So simple, yet so difficult. All men. Except blacks. Except American Indians. This was 1776 and the declaration was very progressive, a step forward. But most white men then held it to be equally self-evident that blacks, women and American Indians were not among those who were created equal, at least not that equal. We believe we see it the right way now – that all men means all people – regardless of gender, colour or creed. But when we look at the world, we also see that this is only part of the story. We need to make it the only story – the only game in town. All people are created equal.

It takes courage, dedication, vision and , effort to make this principle a reality around the world. It is up to us to make it happen. It is up to us to be agents of change. Let us change attitudes. Let us achieve development. Let us hold the right to freedom from poverty and injustice as self-evident truths. And let us never cease acting upon these truths!

I wish you perseverance and purpose, and I hereby declare the International Student Festival in Trondheim 2003 to be open.