Oliver Stuenkel - Does Kim Signal World Bank Changes?
April 25, 2012 Editor's note: This roundup is a new monthly feature of the Council of Councils initiative, gathering opinions from global experts on major international developments.
The selection of Jim Yong Kim, the U.S. candidate, as the next president of the World Bank has stimulated debate over reform of the institution's governance. Four experts size up the succession process, some judging it a missed opportunity for meaningful change while others seeing a crucial injection of new expertise at the sixty-eight-year-old development body.
CFR's Stewart Patrick notes a flawed process that still marks a turning point for the Bank.Oliver Stuenkel of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in Brazil laments the failure of the emerging powers to rally around Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Both Stuenkel and Daniel Bradlow of the University of Pretoria in South Africa warn that without reform at the World Bank, some of its largest borrowers could seek alternatives, such as the proposed BRICS bank. But the East Asia Institute's Sook Jong Lee welcomes Kim's selection, saying his public health background bodes well for tackling the complex problems of development work.
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