They are preventive roles and therefore not as visible as the peace-keeping forces and emergency humanitarian assistance which have unfortunately come to dominate the perception of the United Nations in our contemporary world. Prevention, if successful, is invisible. I like to repeat that the generals who won a battle are decorated. Those who prevented a war, are not. The perception and awareness of the intangibles will become a crucial pillar of the art of governance.
Education is prevention from the grass roots up.
Education is liberation, is awakening of human creative capacities, is empowerment for each person's choices. We have been taking practical measures along these lines for some years now. No matter what the religious or cultural context, be it in North Africa, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa or Latin America, the education of women and girls is the best guarantee that uncontrolled population growth can come under control within the foreseeable future. President Soeharto from Indonesia, and the Prime Minister of India, Naroshima Rao, personally signed the commitment to increase substantially the resources invested in Education, particularly of women and girls, before the year 2000. If these nine countries shift their priorities in this way, population growth will be curbed, poverty will be reduced, and emigration will decrease.