The division between rich and poor that fractured our cities for so long, must become a thing of the past. It is the task of the First World and of all those engaged in the fight against urban poverty to promote the vision of the city, and to make it a reality for urban dwellers all over the world. Nowhere is the task more urgent than in the cities of the developing world, where increasing numbers of the poorest citizens live in slums. So we intend in this article, to focus on the developing world and the plight of its slum dwellers. We shall start by offering a general overview of the problem of poverty in the developing world and what is being done to tackle it. We shall then address a particular acute example of this general problem - urban poverty - and describe the initiative that the World Bank and its partners are taking to meet the challenge of cities without slums. We hope, in so doing, to explain why this initiative is so important, not just for the slum dwellers themselves, but also for us all. It is because the division between rich and poor has no place in the cities of tomorrow.

The World Bank, created in the aftermath of World War 11, was designed initially to oversee the reconstruction and development of those countries devastated by the war.

Over the last sixty years or so, it has developed into an institution whose central task is to fight poverty throughout the world. Those at the World Bank perform this task in the belief that the reduction of poverty is a necessary precursor to the promotion of equity, or fairness for all. If the world is to reduce the huge degree of inequity that exists between peoples and nations today, then the first problem to be addressed is that of poverty. It is quite clear where we need to direct our main energies in the fight against poverty. There are six billion people on our planet today and five billion of them are residents of developing countries. Three billion live on under two U.S. dollars a day, and one billion two hundred million people on less than one U.S. dollar a day. So the particular challenge that faces the World Bank, that faces us all indeed, is to address the problem of poverty in the developing world.

No one should forget that the dimensions of this problem are, for demographic reasons, expanding at an alarming rate. In the next twenty-five years, the population of our planet is set to grow from six to eight billion and since all that growth will occur in developing countries, the world in 2025 will be one in which seven of its eight billion inhabitants live in developing countries.

What is more, this growth is set to occur entirely in urban populations. The cities of the developing world, in other words, are set to become the front-line in the fight against poverty.

People are starting to recognize that poverty is a problem that affects us all. The recent and remarkable election of President Lula in Brazil is indicative of a change of mood, a new recognition that has dawned not only in South America, but also around the world. President Lula's key campaign messages dwelt on the need for poverty to be tackled head on, to build a social system that was equitable for all Brazilians. Several other countries have recently elected presidents and leaders on the promise of similar messages.

The feeling is that the growth of social inequity has gone too far and that the problem of poverty must now be addressed. This change of mood has not occurred because all of a sudden, people have become more altruistic, but because they have recognized that, in a globalized world, what happens in one place inevitably affects people in another. That is, indeed, precisely what globalization means: The fact that in the areas of health, education, communications, finance, migration and so many others, we all belong for better or for worse, to one world. No event could have brought that notion home more forcibly, to the American people at least, than the terrorist attacks on 11 September, 2001 - the collapse of the World Trade Center, the attack on the Pentagon, and the crash at a field in Pennsylvania. For these attacks showed that what happens in some distant and desperately poor country, like Afghanistan, has direct consequences from which none of us can escape. Many people, not just in the United States, but also throughout the world, came to the view as a result of the September 11 attacks that poverty is not just an issue of ethics or charity, but one of direct self-interest. All of us, in our globalized world, are subject to the consequences of poverty wherever it exists.

Poverty in one place is poverty everywhere. This was true, of course, long before the events of September 11, 2001 brought it home to many in the developed world.

Fighting poverty, as we have said, has been the aim of the World Bank for decades. It is also enshrined in the Millennium Development Goals, a set of initiatives designed to make the world a better place, which were adopted by the entire United Nations membership in the year 2000.

One of these Goals, which are to be achieved by 2015, is a key commitment to halve poverty worldwide. This commitment includes a target specifically related to urban poverty, to which we will return later. For now we refer to the Millennium Development Goals simply as a further indication of the recent sea change in world opinion.

National leaders, as well as those that they represent, have recognized that the world must unite its forces in the fight to reduce poverty.

The women of the world do not start by talking about a lack of money. They talk instead of the need for recognition, freedom from fear, opportunity, and an end to hunger.

The women, in particular aspire towards freedom from fear and from gender persecution. All ask, not for charity, but for an opportunity to make something of their lives. What the people in slums, shanties, and villages of the developing world want above all, is the chance to work towards the betterment of themselves and their children.

The term 'developing world' is not a politically correct euphemism: It expresses the fundamental desire of the vast numbers of people to whom it refers. These are not strange people from another planet; they are like us, and their desires are the same as ours. Of course they are looking for additional funding, for they know what a difference that funding will make, but they want to earn it for themselves.