US nomination takes sting out of criticism

Washington: President Barack Obama's choice of Kim Jim-yong to be the next president of the World Bank returned a spotlight to the Washington-based institution and the grip the United States has held on its leadership. An American has always led the World Bank under an unwritten agreement in place since its creation in 1944. And a European has always led its sister organisation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Representatives of developing countries have pushed to receive equal consideration for the top leadership posts of the two agencies. This is especially true of the World Bank because, as an anti-poverty institution, it focuses its work on emerging economies.

Though an American, Kim is still an unconventional choice for the post. A Harvard-trained specialist in infectious diseases, he would be both the first physician and the first Asian-American to lead the World Bank.

Here is a closer look at the bank and the man nominated to lead it: 

Question: What is the World Bank?

Answer: Despite its name, it's not actually a bank. Rather, the World Bank is an international development organisation with 187 member countries dedicated to fighting poverty. The bank raises money from its members and sells bonds on international financial markets. It uses the money to provide low-interest loans to developing countries. 

How does it carry out its mission?

Last year, the Work Bank issued $57.3 billion (Dh210.39 billion) in loans, grants and loan guarantees. It is involved in 1,800 projects, from road maintenance in Vietnam to raising AIDS-prevention awareness in Guinea to helping rebuild Haiti after that country's devastating 2010 earthquake. From its base in Washington, the World Bank oversees 10,000 employees, including 3,000 outside the United States. Its overseas staff includes engineers, environmental scientists and financial analysts. 

Who is Kim Jim-yong?

Kim is president of Dartmouth College and a former chair of the global health department at Harvard Medical School. He co-founded Partners in Health in 1987, which provides health care to poor residents of Haiti and in five other countries. Previous World Bank presidents have been mostly former high-profile US government officials with deep international experience. The outgoing president, Robert Zoellick, who will step down in June, was President George W. Bush's trade representative and deputy secretary of state. He was preceded by Paul Wolfowitz, who was Bush's deputy secretary of defence. 

Who chooses the bank's president?

The World Bank's 25-member executive board makes the formal decision. But, the United States is the largest donor and controls the most votes on the board. The tradition by which an American runs the World Bank and a European the IMF dates to the waning days of the Second World War, when the two institutions were created. Developing countries want to end that arrangement, but haven't been able to. 

Why did Obama nominate Kim Jim-yong?

By nominating an Asian-born development expert, rather an American-born US political figure, the White House may take some of the sting out of its effort to keep an American in the top spot. In announcing the nomination, Obama said Kim has spent "two decades working to improve conditions in developing countries around the world." His nomination has already been endorsed by one developing country leader: Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda.