Okonjo-Iweala loses World Bank presidency to incompetent American in a highly politicized selection process – Makes Africa proud

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, American Politics, National Politics, Top Stories, Women Politics Monday, April 16th, 2012

The Executive Directors of the World Bank on Monday selected American nominee, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, as the new president of the institution.

This ends weeks of speculation after Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Ocampo, slugged it out with Kim.
Ocampo pulled out of the race on Friday, leaving Okonjo-Iweala, who is a former managing director of the World Bank, to face Kim.
Finally, after much speculation, the executive directors chose Kim, in what they described as “an open nomination.”
In a statement on the World Bank website, the Board of Executive Directors expressed its deep gratitude to the outgoing president, Mr. Robert B. Zoellick, for his outstanding leadership and his dedication to reducing poverty in its member countries, the core mandate of the World Bank Group.
The statement reads in part, “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.
“The Executive Directors selected Dr. Jim Yong Kim as President for a five-year term beginning on July 1, 2012. The President is Chair of the Boards of Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA).
“The President is also ex officio Chair of the Boards of Directors of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the Administrative Council of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
“We, the Executive Directors, wish to express our deep appreciation to all the nominees, Jim Yong Kim, José Antonio Ocampo and 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 caliber of the candidates. We all look forward to working with Dr. Kim when he assumes his responsibilities.”
Kim is currently President of Dartmouth College. An American, Kim is a co-founder of Partners in Health and a former director of the Department of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organisation.
Before assuming the Dartmouth presidency, 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 Centre for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Before his selection was announced, Okonjo-Iweala had conceded defeat, saying the process was not based on merit.wp_posts