Global Development: Views from the Center
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May 22, 2007
Leadership Selection at an International Financial Institution: What Are the Rules?
Posted by Nancy Birdsall at 07:20 PM
I hope you will take the survey we launched this week, Choosing the Next World Bank President, which among other things includes questions about the selection process for that job.
If you are interested in understanding the formal selection processes at other multilateral banks, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the Asian Development Bank publish their rules publicly. The voting arrangement at the IADB guarantees, by use of double majorities (number of country members and proportion of total weighted votes), for example, that the president will come from a borrowing country, and that he or she will have the endorsement of the United States, which is the single largest shareholder.
For the World Bank, you can study a document their Board issued in 2001, which summarizes initial recommendations for how to formalize a more competitive process of selection of the President. These recommendations were never formally approved.
I was not able to find information in publicly available documents on the selection process and rules for the African Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the International Monetary Fund but will report it if and when it is found.
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Comments
Sure are a lot of men on that list... Now I'm not saying gender ought to be a greater consideration than any of the factors brought up in the survey, or that Bush should start pushing for . . I don't know . . . Karen Hughes? But there've got to be some well qualified women out there. (Right, Nancy?)
Posted by: David Simon at May 23, 2007 10:28 AM
I agree with David. Why isn't Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on the list? She's an enormously qualified candidate, knows the ins and outs of the Bank, has sat on both sides of the development table, and was successful in beginning the cleanup of Nigeria finances.
And why in the world hasn't Jessica Einhorn been mentioned anywhere as a potential candidate? She too has the credentials, experience, and has even shared interesting views on the direction the Bank should take.
Posted by: Jerry at May 25, 2007 09:09 PM
In terms of governance--as it relates to the openness, transparency and meritocracy of the selection of the president--the worst is the Asian Development Bank. The president is chosen always from Japan, not only that only from its ministry of finance. The position is always bundled with the appointment for the position of the head of the personnel and budget department from the ministry of finance , Japan. This bundled appointment creates a strangle hold of the president on the personnel and budget process of the ADB and eliminates any checks and balances in the system.
The presidents are always seasoned bureacrats, but frequently inept in international settings with little familiarity with development and devloping countries. Unless devlopment banking is not a new form colonialism and really meant to assist poor countries in their development , this system must change.
Posted by: michael Philipps at May 30, 2007 09:04 AM