confidentially speaking
The Africa Confidential Blog
Can Ajay Banga fix the World Bank?
Blue Lines
When Ajay Banga went on his campaign tour, government and financial leaders were keen to meet the former Mastercard chief executive and tout his credentials as the reformist needed to shake up a sclerotic World Bank. Now installed as President, Banga will be under pressure to drive the reform of the international financial institutions, taking in at least some ideas from Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, whose recommendations were endorsed at last November's UN COP27 summit.
Along with balancing demands for a rapid increase in green spending and programmes to tackle inequality, the push for a new global debt relief programme needs a new leader. French President Emmanuel Macron will host the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, but diplomats complain that preparations have been chaotic with no clear sense of what Macron hopes to achieve.
Banga starts with plenty of in-house problems. Officials say that the World Bank's governance structure is neither executive nor strategic and has allowed national government representatives to prioritise domestic interests over global needs. Such shortcomings go some way to explaining why the Bank has failed to deliver more on climate finance and poverty reduction. It is also a long way from the business world in which Banga carved out his career. He will have to be much bolder and more political if he is to meet those lofty demands.