Fuente : World Bank
http://www.worldbank.org

Roundup: Commentaries on Paul Wolfowitz’s Confirmation as Next World Bank President

/noticias.info/ To be effective [as the new World Bank President], Paul Wolfowitz will have to secure support from donor and borrower governments of left and right, work with other international organizations and engage civil society, argues The Financial Times in an editorial on Saturday (04/02). James Wolfensohn, the current president, has been too quick to kowtow to western non-governmental organizations. But the bank does need buy-in from a wide range of global stakeholders.


At the same time Wolfowitz must set out his own vision. The Bank needs greater focus. Under Wolfensohn it expanded into a wide range of social, institutional and environmental activities. These should not be junked. But they need to be integrated into a much tighter framework. This framework should be defined by two guiding principles. First, that the bank exists to fight poverty, and the best way to do so is to promote broad-based economic growth. Second, that the bank is there to fill the gaps left by market and government failure. This suggests two principal tasks: to provide finance to countries that cannot access private markets and to produce knowledge about development, a global public good. Aligning the bank's resources behind these core tasks will require better internal management. Even Wolfensohn's admirers admit he was a weak manager. Wolfowitz will need a strong team, defined by ability not nationality. One of the Bank's biggest contributions is as a training ground for national policymakers.


The development challenge the bank faces today is both narrower and more intractable than the one it faced 30 years ago. Economic growth has taken root in most of Asia and Latin America. More and more countries have access to private capital. But a hard core of countries, overwhelmingly in sub-Saharan Africa, languish in dreadful misery. Wolfowitz must make Africa his top priority. This demands a multi- pronged strategy, backing to the hilt those few countries with tolerable good governance, helping build institutions and capacity elsewhere, and blending aid with security in fragile states with weak or collapsed governments. For this he will also need more money.


Wolfowitz should also ask why the bank continues to lend to middle income countries with access to capital markets. It may be that this is essential to sustain a global knowledge base, and to provide leverage to help groups ignored by national capitals. But this is not obviously the case. At least a thorough re-examination is called for, argues the financial daily.


The Chicago Tribune (US, 04/02) further writes that if Wolfowitz can introduce a system of objectively measuring the outcomes of [World Bank] projects, he will have done a great service. That would increase the bank's credibility with the poor countries that receive the aid and the rich countries that fund it. Successes in developing countries often depend on the commitment of local political leaders to open markets, encourage private investment and protect property rights. The World Bank could pressure corrupt and inefficient governments to change their ways by denying certain kinds of aid unless reforms are made. And it could base those decisions on the proof of the numbers--once it develops the numbers. That's roughly the model for the Bush administration's Millennium Challenge Account, and it would be a valuable model for the World Bank.


Wolfowitz might want to spend some time digesting the findings of a report released Wednesday after the 8.7 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Indonesia. Prepared by experts at the World Bank in conjunction with Columbia University and the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, it suggests ways that development and economic aid could help poor countries better withstand natural disasters. That, the authors conclude, would help countries escape the chronic trap that finds them spending so much of their scarce resources on recovery and reconstruction from past disasters rather than getting ahead economically.


Die Presse (Austria, 04/04) meanwhile reports that the approval by the Europeans of Wolfowitz’s candidacy is the result of an agreement between Washington and Brussels, and other European capitals, regarding the staffing of important international positions. According to information from American and European diplomats, Washington’s most important “reward” for Europe’s “yes” to Wolfowitz was the support from the Bush administration for Pascal Lamy, the EU candidate for the soon-to-be staffed general director position of the World Trade Organization in Geneva.


La Tribune (France, 04/04) further writes that France recommends three priorities to Wolfowitz: “First Africa, then Africa, and finally Africa,” noted Michel Camdessus, former director of the IMF. Camdessus said in Paris that “the world needs for Wolfowitz to succeed in Africa, and Africa needs him to succeed, and the only thing I can tell you is that - I believe - the priorities we will recommend to him from the French side are Africa, Africa, and Africa.”


Die Tageszeitung (Germany, 04/04) notes German development minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul called on Wolfowitz to ensure political continuity but greater involvement in transition countries. The minister said all Europeans had agreed that the financial capacity of the World Bank had to remain in place. The balance between grants and loans must not be completely shifted, she said, adding that the World Bank was to continue working in transition countries as well. “Whoever wants to leave [transition countries] will make way for American private banks - this we will prevent,” the minister said.


German daily Die Welt (04/01) meanwhile comments that the new World Bank president does not necessarily have to take into account the wishes and claims of the Europeans. He can refer to the countries of the South, whose representatives on the World Bank board keep a remarkably low profile. Even at his lightning visit to Brussels, Wolfowitz stressed that political and personnel decisions have to take into account the "multilateral character of the World Bank" - an unmistakable hint that the Europeans alone will not set the tone.


However, it is also clear that Wolfowitz has not obtained a carte blanche. The fact that he was elected without controversial debates and without rival candidate does not mean that he will have a free rein in the future. His surprising World Bank career was possible only because of the bank's pre-democratic decision-making structures - and because the Europeans did not want to fight any rearguard battles in the wake of the Iraq war. Wolfowitz should keep this in mind when he will soon follow in the footsteps of his great predecessor Robert McNamara.


Finally, Reuters (04/02) reports that bank officials said on Friday the appointment of Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank has prompted new concerns about possible terrorist attacks on the institution, which has ordered a review of its security procedures. "Directors raised with him their concerns of the possibility of an increased security risk he would bring to the bank," one senior board official, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters. "He said he'd look into it." The board official said the unease was that bank staff and operations, many in far-flung locations, could become possible targets because of Wolfowitz's role in the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

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