At the World Bank/International Monetary Fund annual meeting (2.-3. October), there was a good deal of speculation about whether James Wolfensohn might take up a third term as president of the Bank, the worlds largest development institution, reports the World Bank press review Friday.
There was a strong sense that the 60-year-old organization has undergone enormous change with Wolfensohn at the helm – something not always recognized by the Banks critics, says an op-ed published in The Financial Times written by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, minister of finance for Nigeria and former vice-president and corporate secretary at the World Bank, and Nicholas Stern, second permanent secretary at the UK Treasury and formerly chief economist and senior vice-president for development economics at the World Bank.
The man we know is a passionate advocate for the poor, and a visionary leader. He is also the first to acknowledge that the Banks evolution is far from over. That said, there is no doubt that the Bank has made tremendous strides during his tenure.
He has changed a lot and at the same time built on what had been done before. He has also identified neglected issues. Under him, for example, Africa has received unprecedented attention from the Bank. Africans recognize that he deserves a great deal of personal credit for this.
Todays Bank is working more on the side of its clients than ever. It supports home-grown poverty-reduction strategies and a coordinated approach by donor countries. Local initiatives are more likely to motivate growth and participation in societies and help them to overcome poverty.
The Bank is more open and transparent. It has moved many of its staff out into the field where they are closer to the governments they advise. The results speak for themselves. Success rates in Bank-supported projects, as judged by the Banks operations evaluation department, rose to close to 90 percent in 2003 from barely more than 70 percent in 1995.
Ten years ago, debt relief may have been discussed but it was not on the international agenda for action. Largely due to Wolfensohns drive and his willingness to listen to debt relief advocates, we have the highly indebted poor countries initiative, through which 27 countries stand to receive debt forgiveness of 54 billion US dollar. The push for even more progress on this issue, with specific proposals from the US and UK governments, was a significant topic at the annual meetings.
Wolfensohn can also be credited with breaking the taboo on the discussion of corruption. This stemmed from his “cancer of corruption” speech to the Bank/IMF annual meeting in 1996 and is now a paramount development issue. The Bank is supporting hundreds of anti-corruption programs in nearly 100 countries.
In addition, it has also returned to its founding mandate for reconstruction. Bosnia was the test case. Since then, the Bank has played a vital role in Gaza, Kosovo, East Timor, Sierra Leone and more than 30 other areas, its expertise and finance helping to cement peace and restore hope.
Above all perhaps, the Bank has been at the forefront of the quiet revolution that has taken place over the past decade in making development aid more effective.
Better allocation and improvements in institutional capacity, civil society, policies and governance in developing countries, mean that aid is increasingly focused on countries with strong records – such as Uganda and Vietnam. While too many are still left out, especially in Africa, many countries are demonstrating that successful development is possible.
In this past year the developing world as a whole achieved record growth. The larger story, however, is that over the past two decades the proportion of people living in poverty fell from 40 percent to 21 percent. Life expectancy in developing countries has increased by an average of 20 years. We all know, however, how much more there is to do – particularly in Africa.
As head of the Bank, James Wolfensohn has brought passion and commitment to an institution and to a business that needs these qualities more than any other.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
