Letter of rejection of the US nomination of Ajay Banga, former Mastercard chief, to be World Bank president

Civil society organisations from around the world reject the nomination of Mr. Banga for World Bank president and call for an end of the gentlemen’s agreement. 

We, the undersigned organisations, are appalled that in the context of calls for a democratisation of the governance in the World Bank, and the global consensus of the need for climate and economic justice, the US government nominated Ajay Banga on Thursday 23 February, former MasterCard CEO, to become World Bank president. We reject the nomination of Mr. Banga for World Bank president.

Banga, vice-chair of US private equity group General Atlantic and former chief executive of MasterCard until the end of 2020, was nominated by Joe Biden despite his explicit lack of credentials to lead the World Bank Group towards seriously tackling the generational challenges of climate change and global inequality. A Wall Street veteran, with no demonstrated development experience, Banga lacks the credibility to lead the World Bank in its stated objective of promoting sustainable development and eradicating poverty, or in addressing economic and social rights of the most vulnerable communities, let alone climate change. Banga’s current and past affiliations include being Chairman of the Board at Exor (a Dutch investment holding company) and Director at Temasek (Singapore’s state-owned investment fund), both of which invest in fossil fuel projects. He also benefited from Trump-era tax cuts by cashing in on share sales after the tax cuts had allowed MasterCard to inflate its own share price through buybacks.

The profile of this nominee could not be further away from what the world needs in the current context of multifaceted crises and environmental emergencies. The World Bank is not a private equity firm. The nomination of yet another investment banker illustrates how deeply Wall Street financiers remain embedded in leadership, advisory, stakeholder and many other key positions across international financial institutions, particularly the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund.

The nomination demonstrates another dangerous step towards the Wall Street Climate Consensus, where private sector investors take the leading role in financing and governing the supposed “green transition”, while public institutions, including the World Bank, are relegated to derisking private investments in a show of “subsidised greenwashing”. In the context of a Global South debt crisis and hard-hitting austerity measures, the derisking agenda further erodes what is left of the developmental state and the prioritisation of a public budget for economic and social rights and needs.

Banga’s focus on financial markets access and instruments, particularly green bonds, for financing climate and sustainable development investments would only exacerbate the current extractive dynamic, in which scarce public financial resources are massively being diverted from education, health or social protection budgets to repay private bondholders and commercial banks. His appointment is a message from the Biden administration that the World Bank should continue channeling critical sums of public financing to private interests, as the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has been doing for decades.

The nomination by the US government makes clearer than ever the need for a truly merit-based, transparent and open selection process – not just on paper. The World Bank’s next leader must serve billions of people living in poverty and tackle the growing multiple climate, inequality and economic crises in a just, equitable and systemic manner. The world needs a World Bank President who prioritises public financing for public investments and public services, reverses the austerity wave, supports economic diversification and the nurture of domestic productive sectors, and promotes fair resolution to sovereign debt distress, including multilateral debt cancellation when needed. The only way to ensure this leader has the right experience and background to do so is a due selection process that puts an end once and for all to the gentlemen’s agreement between the US and Europe, and prioritises the nomination of a person who comes from the Global South and represents the interests of these countries. A process that necessarily incorporates exchanges with global civil society and sets clear selection criteria, such as a commitment to human rights law and to a feminist, green and just transition that ensures economic transformation in the Global South.

We look forward to progressive candidates from the Global South with the qualifications and lived experience to enable them to lead the World Bank during these challenging times.


Read the letter in Arabic | French | Spanish.

Add your organisation’s signature here. 

Sympathy for the Devil

A personal reflection on the World Bank, Jim Kim, and David Malpass

As a U.S. citizen and a global justice activist, I’ve always opposed the US’s prerogative to nominate the World Bank president. And I certainly never expected to like any U.S. candidate for the World Bank presidency. In 2012, then, I was startled when Barack Obama nominated Jim Kim.

I had met Kim back in 1995 at a protest against the IMF and World Bank in Washington, DC. It was no more than a handshake, but I was thrilled to meet the lead editor of Dying for Growth, a remarkable compendium of articles about the disastrous impact of IMF/WB policies on health around the world. It was one of the pillars of the multi-sectoral work I did with the 50 Years Is Enough U.S. Network of IMF/WB critics.

He had left Partners in Health well before his nomination and gone on to other, less movement-friendly positions, such as the presidency of Dartmouth College. But still, he was Jim Kim; he at least had been “one of us.” What was I, a dedicated campaigner against the U.S. monopoly on the WB presidency, to do?

I didn’t support the U.S. nomination of course, but I wasn’t so passionate in opposing it as I might otherwise have been. Less sentimental colleagues led the charge. But now that Kim has left, we know that he will be remembered primarily for turning the Bank into an even bigger booster of private-sector domination of development than it already was. So much so that he decided to bail on the job when Trump could nominate his replacement, apparently to get the obscene payoffs that await investment bankers with insider experience. Not exactly what I had been hoping for. Continue reading

What does Javanka mean for the World Bank?

Politico has the biggest sensation of the week when it reported on Monday about Ivanka’s prospects for the World Bank. In the topsy turvy world of today’s politics its headline missed the mark. Rather than leading with “Ivanka Trump not under consideration for World Bank chief” the headline should have been:

“Ivanka is overseeing the internal search for a nominee to lead the World Bank”

That is an amazing statement. The search for the World Bank president nominee by the US Administration is being headed by an unpaid aide with no background in economics, finance, or development! If I were in the Treasury I would not not be amused.

Javanka – as the combination of Jared and Ivanka is known – will have their hands full trying to figure out a nominee. Or will they? They could just pick a loyal friend or someone whom the Trumps owe a favour. That wouldn’t be too different than the processes to pick some of the past Presidents. But in today’s climate and with this US Administration that is less likely to a lifelong Republican stalwart and more likely to be someone who has been on the fringes of politics for most of their life. Continue reading

Obama to nominate Korean-born Jim Yong Kim for World Bank head

News just started coming in that President Barack Obama will nominate Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim to head the World Bank, a surprise choice coming on the day the deadline for nominations expires. Anonymous officials have leaked the information to the press ahead of Obama’s official announcement later today.

Kim is a global health expert who has been a Professor of Medicine and Social Medicine and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He has extensive experience in improving health in developing countries and was Director of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS department from 2004 to 2006, when he oversaw all of the WHO’s work related to HIV/AIDS, focusing on initiatives to help developing countries scale up their treatment, prevention, and care programs, including the “3×5” campaign. US health activists seem to be quite excited with the news.

Meanwhile, Jeff Sachs tweeted:

Jim Kim is a superb nominee for WB. I support him 100%. I thank all who supported me and know they’ll be very pleased with today’s news

Is Sachs going to pull out of the race?

With the Eurozone in a mess, Obama has the political space for a “radical” stand

Robert Zoellick, the only neo-con who survived the Bush era because he left in time , has just announced that he will step down from the top job in the World Bank, and not look for a new term in 1818 H street in Washington.

This move, already in the air given the ambition of the democrats not to leave a Republican-appointee in place for a second term at the World Bank, renews again the well known saga about the appointment of next Bank president: again an American politician or banker? Or for the first time ever since Bretton Woods in 1944 will a non-American citizen be allowed to head the institution?

Despite the whole debate and new commitment to a procedure for a transparent and merit-based selection process to find the best candidate for the top job of the IMF, the Europeans gave a bad example in 2011 by forcing through Madame Lagarde at a time of profound crisis in “old Europe”. Hence the need for European governments to be sure that the IMF will intervene in case of a show down of the Eurozone. This is quite understandable for a bunch of countries who are not able even to decide among themselves about how to help each other out of the crisis. Continue reading