US President Barack Obama announces the nomination of Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim (centre) for president of the World Bank, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (left) looks on March 23, 2012.
Last month, I called for the World Bank to be led by a global development leader rather than a banker or political insider.
“The Bank needs an accomplished professional who is ready to tackle the great challenges of sustainable development from day one,” I wrote.
Now that US President Barack Obama has nominated Jim Kim for the post, the world will get just that: a superb development leader.
Obama has shown real leadership with this appointment. He has put development at the forefront, saying explicitly, “It’s time for a development professional to lead the world’s largest development agency.”
Kim’s appointment is a breakthrough for the World Bank, which I hope will extend to other global institutions as well.
Until now, the United States had been given a kind of carte blanche to nominate anyone it wanted to the World Bank presidency.
That is how the Bank ended up with several inappropriate leaders, including several bankers and political insiders who lacked the knowledge and interest to lead the fight against poverty.
In order to break this tradition, and to underscore the critical importance of putting a development leader in charge of the Bank, I entered the campaign myself, and I was deeply honoured by the public support that I received from a dozen countries, and by the private support of many more.
Kim’s nomination was a win for all, and I was delighted to withdraw my candidacy to back him. Kim is one of the world’s great leaders in public health.
I have worked closely with Kim over the years. He is a visionary, seeing the possibility of providing care where none is yet available.
He is bold, ready to take on great challenges. And he is utterly systematic in his thinking, designing new protocols and delivery systems for low-income communities.
The US appointment is not the end of the story. The World Bank’s 25 Executive Directors, representing 187 member countries, must now confirm the choice from among three nominees.
He faces a challenge from Nigeria’s esteemed finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Colombia’s former finance minister, José Antonio Ocampo.
Yet Kim is the overwhelming favourite to get the position, especially given his stellar global record of accomplishment.
Sachs is a professor at Columbia University, Director of its Earth Institute, and a special adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
