Tag Archives: Jim Yong Kim
Why not delay the vote for World Bank President?
13 AprWhy Bill Easterly believes that all candidates for World Bank President should be given more time to engage in a public debate:
A public forum allows many different minority viewpoints to be heard. Indeed, the backlash against Kim has generated its own backlash. The point of a forum is not to privilege Kim’s critics but to let both sides speak. Debates between opposite viewpoints are crucial to any democratic process, preventing “groupthink”; even when the dissidents are wrong, they force those with the right view to make their case. The CGD/Washington Post forum was transparent (the sessions with Okonjo-Iweala and Ocampo were both live-streamed and posted afterwards on the internet). Kim’s discussions with global leaders were not transparent.
Imagine a nominee with controversial environmental views or credentials were in the frame to lead America’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It’s unlikely the administration would say the nominee was so busy meeting members of Congress behind closed doors that he or she had no time to consult with environmentalists.
Read the entire piece, published this afternoon, in The Guardian.
False Dichotomies: National vs Humane Development
13 AprBy Gregg Gonsalves
Lant Pritchett—a Professor of the Practice of International Development at the Harvard Kennedy School—has been leading a campaign against the election of Jim Kim to the World Bank presidency. While he isn’t the only critic of Dr. Kim’s nomination, he is among the most vocal, prominent and well known. Though his views are his own, many of them have been amplified and echoed by other leading development economists like William Easterly at New York University and several people associated with the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC.
Over the past few weeks, Pritchett has questioned Kim’s qualifications, saying a lack of training in economics and experience in world finance should disqualify him from consideration for the post. He has further suggested that the nomination is about the arrogance of American power and hegemony over the institution and that he should step aside for a merit-based election in which the Nigerian candidate for the post, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a World Bank, Harvard and MIT alum and finance minister of Nigeria would sweep to victory. Continue reading
Daily Roundup on Kim vs. Ngozi for World Bank President
29 MarCould Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala head the World Bank? (ungated) By Lant Pritchett, The Guardian
The candidacy of an African woman, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to lead the World Bank represents a historic opportunity to strengthen the organisation in its mission to attack global poverty. However, the fatalist view is that Okonjo-Iweala cannot win because she is not American. Fortunately, in this case idealism and power politics can align. Okonjo-Iweala can and should win, but it will take effort. Here is a five-stage scenario of how events could play out. Continue reading
Is the Tide Turning in favor of the Ngozi Nomination?
28 MarUS World Bank nominee under fire over book By Robin Harding, Financial Times:
Jim Yong Kim, the US nominee to head the World Bank, is coming under fire over a book he co-authored that criticises “neoliberalism” and “corporate-led economic growth”, arguing that in many cases they had made the middle classes and the poor in developing countries worse off.
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Little is known about his views on economic policy because his background is in health. But if he cannot set out a strong vision for how the World Bank will fuel growth, it may boost the campaigns of heavyweight rivals such as Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian finance minister and former World Bank managing director.
