To help implement this agenda, for the first time in the history of the World Bank Group, a Vice Presidency dedicated to Knowledge, Learning and Innovation has been created by President Kim. This complements our Senior Vice Presidency that leads our development research and intellectual leadership on development issues. Our goal is to enable the entire World Bank Group to mainstream and scale up global knowledge, learning and innovation in every country, through every engagement. We seek to build a physical and virtual platform for joint client-staff leadership and learning, knowledge sharing and innovation to enhance our collective capacity to accelerate the end of poverty. We seek to accomplish this in open partnership with others—governments, international organizations, the private sector, donor partners, academia, and civil society.

Going forward, the challenge I want to leave you with today is how we, as partners, can accelerate the end of poverty and build a world of shared prosperity by collaborating to tackle the most important challenges as partners. Let us come together, as individuals, as organizations, and as countries, from all disciplines and all corners of society, each with our strengths and skills, to form such a “Solutions Partnership” by working together to support multi-stakeholder collective action on the ground, and make systematic use of knowledge, learning and innovation to help solve the biggest development challenges.

That is my invitation to you today.

A Tale of the Second River

I started with a story from my home country India—the story of the ailing river Ganga. To end, let me come full circle with the tale of another river—a story from this country, in fact from this very city, Seoul. A story of the once ailing, yet now very healthy, Cheonggyecheon.

Cheonggyecheon is a six kilometer stream that starts in the heart of downtown Seoul and courses through neighborhoods before emptying into the Hangang river. In the 1950s, Seoul was growing at a rapid pace. Migration generated slums along the stream in shabby makeshift houses. The lack of proper sewage systems and pollution from light industry generated trash and waste, which ended up in the stream, and which became a dirty and polluted eyesore. In 1958, the stream was covered up with concrete which was seen to be a solution then—a 5.6 kilometer long and 16 meter wide elevated highway. But upon construction, this became a dark, noisy and seedy corridor.

Ten years ago, a visionary Mayor exercised bold leadership to adopt an unlikely idea to demolish the highway and restore the stream. It was expensive, controversial and unpopular. He forged unlikely coalitions among very diverse stakeholders to foster a common vision and push through bold action. And look at Cheonggyecheon today—today, this beautiful landmark unites this city. Ten years ago, it divided the city.

Cheonggyecheon once was Seoul’s intractable problem, like Mother Ganga in my country. Today, it stands as a proud, international symbol of sustainable urban renewal.

How can we help practitioners worldwide get inspired and learn from this and the myriad other examples of transformational action to change the world for the better, to lift 4 billion people out of poverty and vulnerability? This is our challenge, our imperative and our moral responsibility going forward.

Thank you.