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WASHINGTON—If
one thing has become clear since Robert Zoellick became
World Bank president three months ago, it’s that he isn’t
Paul Wolfowitz.
Wolfowitz’s tenure ended in a forced resignation in May
over allegations that he arranged a sweetheart salary for
his sweetheart, a World Bank employee. Zoellick—a former
diplomat, US Trade Representative and Goldman Sachs
executive—was sent in by President Bush to repair the
damage.
“I have
been at the World Bank Group a little over three months,
and I believe we have been able to calm some of the waters
while starting to navigate a course ahead,” Zoellick said
before the bank held its first semiannual meeting since
Wolfowitz’s resignation.
In many
ways last weekend’s event was a kind of debut for Zoellick
and his ideas.
Wolfowitz
antagonized the World Bank staff and finance ministers
with moves seen as arrogant, including installing a
kitchen Cabinet of Bush administration aides and pursuing
an anticorruption agenda that many people saw as
politically motivated.
By
contrast, Zoellick has taken steps to win over the
economists and technocrats at the bank. For one thing, he
did not install his own personal staff. While Wolfowitz
placed favorites in top jobs, Zoellick did not even bring
along a personal secretary. And for the few appointments
he has made, he promoted from within or appointed
long-time bank employees.
“I think
there’s a kind of honeymoon period right now,” said Bea
Edwards, international projects director at the Government
Accountability Project, a whistle-blower protection group
that served as a conduit for staff opposition to Wolfowitz.
“There are obvious differences in style. Wolfowitz did not
consult people about actions he was about to take, and
Zoellick is consultative. In Washington, there’s a real
science to proper ‘consulting’—you can do nearly anything
you want if the right people are consulted.”
Zoellick
has spent weeks visiting member-countries and collecting
ideas. Recently, he has begun to lay out a vision that
includes intensifying the bank’s core mission to combat
global poverty by supporting development projects in the
world’s 80 poorest countries.
“Globalization must not leave the ‘bottom billion’
behind,” Zoellick said last week. “Poverty breeds
instability, disease and devastation of common resources
and the environment. Poverty can lead to broken societies
that can become breeding grounds of those bent on
destruction and to migrations that risk lives.”
To that
end, Zoellick has doubled the amount the bank has set
aside for its International Development Association, which
makes interest-free loans and grants to poor countries.
And he plans to use the meeting to encourage donor nations
to increase their funding as well.
But at the
same time, Zoellick wants to increase the bank’s work with
so-called middle-income countries such as China, Mexico
and India, nations that are still developing but whose
governments have access to private-sector loans. Some
critics have contended that the World Bank should get out
of the business of making loans to such countries.
But
Zoellick noted that about 70 percent of the world’s poor
live in that part of the world.
“The World
Bank Group needs a more differentiated business model for
the middle-income countries,” Zoellick said. “Critical
social services and infrastructure remain underfunded. In
many cases, rapid economic growth has failed to provide
opportunities for the poor. Environmental problems are
acute.”
Zoellick
has called for expanding the bank’s work with such
countries. For instance, he wants the bank to focus on
funding projects that increase “public goods” such as
infrastructure, health or clean air. He sees the bank
playing a big role in helping
China
and India “integrate the needs of development and low
carbon growth.”
To
demonstrate his commitment to these countries, Zoellick
has simplified and lowered the prices middle-income
countries will pay to borrow from the International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development, an arm of the World
Bank. And he also has put the bank to work helping these
countries develop their own bonds and securities.
Zoellick’s
“expansionist,” said Sebastian Mallaby, an expert on
international finance at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“He’s expanding in all directions.”
All of his
ideas will be under discussion during the Washington
meetings, although few major decisions are expected.
“The
important event will be the under-the-radar—Zoellick
getting buy-in for his vision,” Mallaby said.
While some
people worry that Zoellick might be encouraging the bank
to take on too much too quickly, most of the staff are
relieved to be getting back to work.
“The
spring meeting agenda was hijacked by the Wolfowitz
scandal,” said one employee who, like others, spoke on
condition of anonymity because they are nervous discussing
their boss in public. “The main thing for the staff is
that we’re back to work, finally, and we have a competent
person at the helm.”
“He’s got
the empathy of the staff,” said John Williamson, senior
fellow at the Peterson Institute for International
Economics. “He’s made some good speeches in which he’s
articulated the sort of objectives the people inside the
World Bank want to hear.”
Wolfowitz
was also unpopular because of his role as an architect of
the Iraq war, Williamson said, noting, “Zoellick worked in
the Bush administration, but I think most people [at the
bank] were pretty happy with the policies he was
associated with, primarily free trade.”
Another
thing Zoellick has done is master the details.
At a news
conference last week, he deftly discussed everything from
conditional cash transfers in
Brazil
to Russian malaria remediation programs in Africa.
“Wolfowitz
had a reputation for being bright, but he never
demonstrated it. Zoellick seems to absorb and retain a
great deal of information,” the Government Accountability
Project’s Edwards said.
It remains
to be seen how long the honeymoon lasts, but Mallaby said
Zoellick has learned from his predecessor’s mistakes and
managed to distinguish himself quickly.
“He’s made
a big show of wanting to engage with the staff. Partly
because of that and also because he’s a smart wonk who
likes learning, he’s immensely popular at the bank,”
Mallaby said. “It’s hard to find anyone who’s unhappy.” |
