What Next at the World Bank?

Guest Post by Danny Leipziger,Professor of International Business at George Washington University, and former Vice President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management at the World Bank

A new president will take over the World Bank on July 1^st. Dr. Jim Kim inherits a venerable institution that has lost its way. As a lender, the Bank peaked with its massive precautionary lending in 2008-2009, only to be left capital poor. As an adviser, it has lost too many experienced staff to be taken seriously by more adept policy officials in borrowing countries. And as a voice for development, it has grown faint. To be sure, the Bank still has assets, its past reputation among them, but it is precariously perched, being surpassed and outclassed by regional banks, by the IMF, and by new lenders.

Re-enforcing this rather bleak diagnosis is the fact that senior officials of the Bank have lost hope; staff are now told that policy briefings with Ministers are a thing of the past, that others can analyze World Bank data better than the economists in-house, and that budget constraints limit the Bank’s ability to reach for new challenges. This is the institution that Jim Kim inherits. It needn’t have come to this. A recent Diagnostic Report of the 1818 Society, the Bank retirees group, noted many self-inflicted wounds caused by poor management, excessive decentralization and lack of accountability, mission creep, and horrific human resource policies.

Faced with this situation, a new CEO might be inclined to look for the silver bullet of one new initiative, one new partnership, or one new theme. That would be a colossal error. Turnaround management will require a new business model for the 65 year-old development bank. That new model should include retrenchment into regional hubs, staff reductions, a new organizational structure, and a return to a sensible human resource policy. The World Bank staff, its primary asset, needs to be recruited from the best places and needs to embody the best global skills. Only then will they get their meeting with ministers.

Its financial model needs to be rethought to gain more leverage from existing capital and to start lending to sub-national entities that will for the next decade be the growth drivers and either the greatest polluters or largest carbon-reducers. Its mission must change from an excessive focus on fragile states and its IDA business to a better balance with middle-income engagements based on bundled services of expertise, financing, and convening power. This work cannot be done by term- contracted appointees with neither the requisite experience nor the institutional memory of knowing what has worked and what has failed in the past.

Most of all, the Bank needs to get it "mo-jo" back! It has been on its heels since 2005. It has not reacted to new global challenges to redefine its role. It failed to capture the climate change agenda; it responded to the financial crisis with one-time lending, but failed to provide the risk mitigation instruments that emerging market economies want; and it has not responded well to the growth and employment challenges facing middle-income countries. And it has lost its intellectual leadership on issues that matter to those not in the developed world.

New leadership can turn the World Bank around, but piecemeal reforms will not work. Visionary leadership and hands-on management is required, and one can only hope that President Kim will have the perspicacity and the perseverance to re-invent the Bank, restore its excellence, and regain global relevance.

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The author seems to take for granted the premise that a strong World Bank is desirable. If the bank's influence is waning and nobody except disgruntled Bank staff is complaining, what's the problem? It seems that developing country governments have better options. Why not relieve the public of the burden of funding the Bank and let it wither into oblivion?

[Smitkam]

I was deeply puzzled -- saddened -- when the WB started doing Structural Adjustment Loans, which struck me as an appropriate function for the IMF or the Club of Rome or other institutions. The WB had neither the capitalization nor the orientation to such "macro" programs. Nitty-gritty project planning and implementation, things like roads and water, were really useful in some countries where an outside monitor (if not outside expertise) helped see things got built and built well. Sure, under Marcos the Philippines could plan and build roads. But corruption meant that even that in front of his family home was done poorly.
Then there's country focus: should the WB be so involved in China?
Third, a point (I think) you make, strengthening local development institutions. Back in my banking days in the late 1970s, the Brazilian national development bank was already bigger than the World Bank. At that point however the WB still had a wealth of human capital even if it couldn't do much for Brasil in terms of its financial capital. But the WB can still attract young and really bright economists and technicians from the developing world -- and that's a big pool. I met an example last month. The key question: will the Bank put them to good use?

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