Ethics, Development And Disaster

ETHICS AND DEVELOPMENT DAY
INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK
JANUARY 11, 2005, WASHINGTON DC

ETHICS, DEVELOPMENT AND DISASTER1
AMARTYA SEN
Nobel Laureate
1
The relation between ethics and development is a grand subject, which has implications for a
thousand specific problems in the world in which we live. It is wonderful that this general discipline,
with such a wide reach and centralrelevance, has found a fine and productive home at the InterAmerican Development Bank, secured by the long-standing commitment of President Enrique Iglesias
and the firm and innovative stewardship of Bernardo Kliksberg. The intellectual engagements of the
"Ethics and Development Day" provide an apt setting for the celebration of the leadership of IDB in
this field, and I am very happy that somany distinguished people have joined us for these deliberations.
I feel very privileged to be here. I am also especially pleased that the Prime Minister of Norway has
been with us through electronic communication, and we appreciate his message very much indeed.
Norway occupies an extraordinary position in the world of ethical practice in economic
development, not only for contributing a toweringproportion of its national income for aiding the poor
and the troubled across the world, but also in using her powerful voice in world affairs to present the
perspectives of developing countries and in explaining how global justice can be effectively advanced.
Recently, when I spoke at the General Assembly of the United Nations, I had the privilege also of
hearing again the powerfully arguedcase for global equity presented by Mrs. Hilde Johnson, the
Norwegian Minister of International Development, for the consideration by other member states.
Even though "ethics and development" is a very general subject, the usefulness of the discipline
greatly depends on our ability to apply these general ideas to serious problems that confront the world.
It is, thus, not surprising that a lotof the empirical work related to this subject has gone into exploring
1 Text of keynote address at the Ethics and Development Day at the IDB on January 11, 2005.
Document included in the Digital Library of the Inter-American Initiative on Social Capital, Ethics and
Development of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) - www.iadb.org/ethics

very specific problems, varying from thecentrality of global justice to the practical relevance of
business ethics. This is indeed the right direction in which to go.
The latter - the constructive role of norms in business and commerce - is an old subject, which
has engaged such leaders of social and economic analysis as Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill. I heard
from Enrique Iglesias just this morning that my old friend, Professor RobertHeilbroner, has just died:
his insightful exploration of the ideas of classical economic thinkers - "the worldly philosophers" - bring
out how many sided their visions were, compared with the narrowness of some of the contemporary
mainstream economics. The neglect of these far-reaching perspectives in much of on-going economics
calls for a broadening engagement, and the growing literature onethics and development has taken on
that task with much dedication and skill. The initiative here is an extremely important part of that
global movement, and I am delighted (to go back to a point I touched on last year) that Bernardo
Kliksberg's web-site is growing faster than that of Jennifer Lopez!
Similarly, the discipline of ethics and development has helped to give recognition to thedistressing fact that the world in which we live is both remarkably prosperous and thoroughly
miserable, where a massive command over resources, knowledge and technology go hand in hand with
the rugged presence of extraordinary deprivation and staggering inequality. An astonishing number of
children are ill-nourished, ill-cared, illiterate and needlessly ill, with millions perishing every week from...