2006年VOA标准英语-Sustainable Marketplace Goes Global

By Paul Sisco
Washington, D.C.
15 May 2006
 
watch Development report

The World Bank held a Development Marketplace event in Washington D.C. recently.  It lasted only two days but its impact may be felt for a long time.  

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Development Marketplace exhibits  
  

The main lobby of the World Bank’s headquarters in Washington DC, became a global development marketplace.  The participants came from Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, India, and Indonesia; 118 social entrepreneurs from 55 countries.

“My name is Ludmila Slavinskaya, and I represent Turkmenistan.“
“My name is Pandu.  I come from Indonesia.”
“My name is Keith Aulick, I'm representing Catholic Relief Services - Afghanistan program.”

  
  
They brought models, proposals, pumps and prototypes -- sharing information, and hoping to win support for their ideas, devices and projects -- all aimed at benefiting the world's poorest citizens.  The event is sponsored primarily by the World Bank, and more than 30 of this year's international participants are returning to their home countries with significant grants for their innovative¹ development proposals.

Jacob Jacobson  
  
Among this year’s winners, Jacob Jacobson from Senegal. "We have this in Mozambique,” he says, demonstrating a water well system.  “We have this in Zambia, we have it in Zimbabwe.  This system only costs five to 25 U.S. dollars, for this system to be put in place.”

Another winner is Keith Aulick. "The project that we're representing today focuses on the introduction of low cost drip irrigation technology into select sites in Western Afghanistan,” says the representative from Catholic Relief Services. “And then using that activity as a catalyst² to introduce long term natural resource management planning.”

Keith Aulick  
  
“Afghanistan has a rich tradition over thousands of years of natural resource management,” he continued, “but those systems have been degraded and lost ah, over the last thirty-so odd years of war, so it is reintroducing those systems, taking into account the increased pressure on natural resources given the influx³ of people, that have returned now that the fighting is finally finished. It is an education process but it also involves the introduction of specific technologies and innovation."

Since 1978, the World Bank's Development Marketplace program has awarded participants in excess of $35 million U.S. for more than 570 innovative, groundbreaking projects in more than 70 countries.

1 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

2 catalyst   

n.催化剂，造成变化的人或事

参考例句：

• A catalyst is a substance which speeds up a chemical reaction.催化剂是一种能加速化学反应的物质。
• The workers'demand for better conditions was a catalyst for social change.工人们要求改善工作条件促进了社会变革。

3 influx   

n.流入，注入

参考例句：

• The country simply cannot absorb this influx of refugees.这个国家实在不能接纳这么多涌入的难民。
• Textile workers favoured protection because they feared an influx of cheap cloth.纺织工人拥护贸易保护措施，因为他们担心涌入廉价纺织品。