It is unsurprising that the new leader of the World Bank is from the USA; its leaders have been from the US since it was created after world war two. I lament the ‘US/European duopoly’ of the World Bank/IMF as much as the next person. These two organisations, as well as most UN institutions, are in vital need of some injection of diversity in perspective from the global south and east.
What is surprising is that, in the case of Jim Yong Kim vs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for president of the World Bank, I am delighted that American Kim has won. It was Nigerian Okonjo-Iweala who represented the status quo in this case. Kim's background in global health rather than finance is incredibly refreshing, and I look forward to his input. This is particularly considering the announcement that David Cameron is to chair the UN committee on overseeing development goals (more of which later…)
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