The Next World Bank President

Speaking on BBC World News Today, Carnegie’s Uri Dadush explained that, in keeping with tradition, the American nominee for World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim, was selected to head the organization when current president Robert Zoellick steps down in June. This year’s selection process for the World Bank’s top job was subject to unprecedented competition, with the participation of two developing country candidates—including Nigeria’s finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Dadush noted that, while Okonjo-Iweala’s loss was disappointing—given that he and many development professionals believe she was the most qualified candidate—her presence in the competition will hopefully open the doors to a more transparent, merit-based process in the future, at both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The viability of both institutions, he said, rests in part on their capacity to better represent a world in which the economic weight of emerging markets is growing.