US candidate Kim is World Bank president

By Nduka Chiejina, Asst. Editor 

Jim Yong Kim

• Promises to draw on Nigerian, Columbian candidates’ expertise • Jonathan, Okonjo-Iweala congratulate him

American Jim Yong Kim was last night named as World Bank President. The Dartmouth College’s president was picked after an unprecedented competition against nominees from Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria and Dr. Jose Ochampo from Columbia, who withdrew at the last minute.

The bank board confirmed the decision in a statement. Kim will now be the institution’s 12th president to succeed Robert Zoellick when his five-year term ends in June.The Board expressed its deep gratitude for Mr Zoellick’s outstanding leadership and his dedication to reducing poverty in its member countries, the core mandate of the World Bank Group.

A statement by the World Bank said: "The Executive Directors followed the new selection process agreed in 2011 which, for the first time in the Bank’s history, yielded multiple nominees. This process included an open nomination where any national of the Bank’s membership could be proposed by any Executive Director or Governor, publication of the names of the candidates, interviews of the candidates by the Executive Directors, and final selection of the President."

It added: "We, the Executive Directors, wish to express our deep appreciation to all the nominees, Jim Yong Kim, José Antonio Ocampo and Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Their candidacies enriched the discussion of the role of the President and of the World Bank Group’s future direction. The final nominees received support from different member countries, which reflected the high calibre of the candidates. We all look forward to working with Dr. Kim when he assumes his responsibilities.

"Dr. Jim Yong Kim is currently President of Dartmouth College. A U.S. national. He is a co-founder of Partners in Health (PIH) and a former director of the Department of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organisation (WHO). Before assuming the Dartmouth presidency, Dr. Kim held professorships at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He also served as chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and director of the François Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health."

In a statement after his election, Dr. Kim said he had spoken with Okonjo-Iweala and Prof. Ocampo. He said they have both made important contributions to economic development, and I look forward to drawing on their expertise in the years to come.

Meanwhile,President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has congratulated Dr. kim on his election as the new President of the World Bank. President Jonathan also thanked the leaders, governments, peoples and friends of developing countries, as well as the media and other civil society groups, for the support and encouragement given to Dr. Okonjo-Iweala.

Okonjo-Iweala, who had earlier said she was pressured to withdraw from the race but she declined, also congratulated Dr Kim on his election as the World Bank President.

She said she looked forward to working with Dr Kim and would support him, staff and stakeholders of the World Bank Group for the benefit of poor people around the world, "their plight is at the heart of the mandate of the institution and we must never lose sight of that."

On the selection process, she insisted that "we need to make it more open, transparent and merit-based to make sure we do not contribute to a democratic deficit in global governance."

SOURCE: The Nation, 17 April 2012.  http://www.thenationonlineng.net