Kudos to Kim

Last Friday, in an unexpected move, President Obama picked Jim Yong Kim, the current president of Dartmouth University, to be the next leader of the World Bank. Traditionally, the United States selects the head of the World Bank, and Europe selects that of the International Monetary Fund. Thus, despite the presence of at least one other nominee, it is likely that Dr. Kim will fill the post.

We believe that Dr. Kim is a qualified, experienced candidate who will bring strong leadership and a unique vision to the World Bank. Perhaps more importantly, we hope that he uses these attributes to address the often-problematic relationship between the Bank, the United States, and developing countries, and implement much-needed reforms at the institution.

Since its inception during World War II, the World Bank has been a critically important institution for extending financial assistance to troubled countries. The organization describes poverty reduction as the primary goal of its work, and a laudable one it is. However, the methods it uses to attain this objective have come under increasing criticism in recent years. In certain cases, the World Bank attaches conditions to the financial assistance it provides, encouraging debtor nations to adopt policies it deems conducive to economic development.

While practices such as fiscal responsibility and free trade undoubtedly contribute to economic growth, the World Bank should recognize that a single set of solutions cannot be applied to the vast multitude of problems that developing countries face. To provide just one example of how this sponsorship can backfire, the World Bank recently championed utility privatization in Ghana, despite findings by the United Nations that such measures actually increase poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The World Bank should take heed of the fact that a one-size-fits-all approach is clearly not appropriate to the complex issues afflicting the developing world, and be less aggressive in its support for liberal economic policies.

Clearly, there is room for improvement at the World Bank, and Dr. Kim is uniquely positioned to make the most of it. Public health is a key area of World Bank involvement, and as a medical doctor, Dr. Kim will bring an important and unprecedented focus to the issue. He previously spearheaded an impressive push to provide HIV treatment at the World Health Organization. In addition, his academic, as opposed to political, background will prove refreshing at the organization; he is less likely to be influenced by ideology than his predecessors, many of whom were business executives with extensive political ties. We hope that Dr. Kim will let practicality, rather than the desire to promote certain policies, guide his actions.

In the future, we would like to see the World Bank led by someone from a developing country. American hegemony in this respect is one of the main complaints directed at the institution from developing countries. However, nationality is a far less important qualification than credentials, and Dr. Kim’s past work demonstrates that he will prove a capable, and perhaps exemplary, president of the institution. We wish him well, and hope he has better luck eradicating world poverty than he did fighting cocaine use at Dartmouth.