Jeffrey Sachs awarded with the Legion of Honor by France on May 11, 2022

For his work and accomplishments, which provide concrete solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs was made a Knight in the National Order of the Legion of Honor by French Ambassador to the United States Philippe Etienne at the French Consulate General in New York.

Jeffrey Sachs is widely known and respected as one of the world’s leading economists.

At the age of 28, he had already become a full professor with tenure in the economics department at Harvard and for the past 40 years he has held the highest professorial ranks in two of the most prestigious universities in the world, Harvard and Columbia.

His research and thinking continually cross over from the proverbial ivory tower into the real world to help solve its most immediate, pressing and complex problems. For instance, in his first book, published in the 1980s, he studied the effects of stagflation in the world economy. Later, he shifted to trying to understand how debt was holding back developing countries. In the 1990s, after the major changes that took place in the Soviet Union, he turned to figuring out how to manage the transition from central planning to market economies. In the 2000s, Mr. Sachs became interested in how to end extreme poverty. Today, he is focused on sustainable development and how to slow down human induced global warming. In each case, he has come up with solutions that have been widely praised, and often implemented worldwide.

Jeffrey Sachs’ books are accessible to the public and several have become bestsellers, such as The End of Poverty, in which he pointed out that simple measures like increasing the availability of anti-malarial bed nets in sub-Saharan Africa, and more politically challenging ones like cancelling the debt of the world’s poorest countries, would go a long way towards pulling 1.1 Billion people out of their economic misery.

In addition to writing about pressing world problems Mr. Sachs plays a direct role in world affairs. This role has been so important, that Times magazine has included him in its list of the 100 most influential leaders in the world not once, but twice.
In the 1990s, he was one of the main advisers to governments in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union which were seeking make the transition from central planning to a market economy. He wrote a comprehensive plan for Poland that served as the blueprint for the reform program that was put in place by its finance minister Leszek Balcerowicz. Based on the success of his recommendations, other countries sought his advice on macroeconomic issues as well, including Slovenia, Estonia, Russia, China, India, Bolivia, Peru, and a number of countries in Africa.
Jeffrey Sachs has also been a key advisor to the leaders of international institutions such as the UN. He has been the special advisor to every one the UN Secretaries General since 2001, and his advice has brought tangible, real world results. For example, in the early 2000s, he was commissioned to help design and launch a Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Now, this fund mobilizes and invests more than 4 billion dollars per year.
 He also chaired the World Health Organization Commission (2000-2001) and the UN Millenium Project which was tasked with developing a concrete plan to reach the millenium goals (2002-2006).

Another way in which you Jeffrey Sachs has made sure that his research do more than fill up the pages of scholarly journals is by creating and leading cross-displinary programs that draw on experts from different academic fields to find solutions to pressing social, economic and environmental problems. He led the Earth Institute at Columbia University for more than 10 years (2002-2016), and is now the director of the Center for Sustainable Development at this Institute. He is also the President of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), which draws on experts from academia, civil society and the private sector to provide concrete ideas on how we can achieve a more sustainable approach to development.

France has been committed to some of the same causes as Mr. Sachs, such as reducing poverty and slowing down climate change. France’s leaders are profoundly impressed by everything that he has done to tackle both of these problems, on whose outcome the future of humanity depends. France is also very glad to be able to count on Mr. Sachs’ moral support and practical involvement in some of our international climate efforts. For example we welcomed the very public statement that he made with 80 other economists just before the One Planet Summit of 2017, in which he called for an end to investments in fossils fuels. We also appreciated his participation in the One Planet Lab, the think tank of the One Planet Summit launched by President Emmanuel Macron, which mobilizes influential leaders from the non for profit sector, universities, business and finance to find solutions to global warming.

For the full article, with photos, please see here: https://newyork.consulfrance.org/jeffrey-sachs-awarded-with-the-legion-of-honor-by-france-on-may-11-2022