CGD president Nancy Birdsall was mentioned in a Market Watch piece on the World Bank presidency.
From the article:
LONDON, March 21, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Statement by Walter H. White, Jr., U.S. lawyer practicing in emerging markets.
The Board of Governors of the World Bank is in the process of considering the election of a new President. To their credit they have called for an open and transparent process. Historically the world has yielded the decision to the nominee of the United States. This tradition emanates from a quid pro quo, what was in essence, a World War II era gentlemen's agreement, which also gave selection of the presidency of the IMF to Europe. At the time the principal purpose of the bank was post war reconstruction. As a result, the eleven prior presidents of the World Bank have been men who happened to be American citizens. This post-war agreement is obsolete and looking back to the world as configured after World War II, is detrimental to the role and the leadership that the bank and the world require for the future. The Board of Governors of the Bank should seek and consider the most qualified candidates and make their decision on merit not nationality.
The world has come a long way since Bretton Woods and it is now time to elect the best candidate that the world has to offer.
The World Bank is not a bank in the traditional sense. It is the world's leading development bank. The World Bank Group is the world's largest funder of education; a leading financier of bio-diversity, water supply and sanitation projects; the foremost non-governmental funder of the fight against AIDs and HIV; and a leader in the fight against corruption worldwide. A further distillation of its mission is to reduce poverty and stimulate sustainable economic development. This is specialized development banking. It needs to be recognized as such, the Presidency of the World Bank is not a role for traditional Wall Street bankers.
The Governors of the Bank now face an unprecedented decision over who will lead the Bank. Each of the 187 member countries has the right to nominate a candidate. To date, two important voices have weighed in on the choice. Nancy Birdsall, President of the Center for Global Development, recommended two candidates of merit designed to build a consensus amongst the emerging economies presumably as a counter to the likely potential U.S. nominees (Next World Bank President: Two Non-U.S. Candidates for the Short List http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-birdsall/world-bank-presidential-candidates_b_1310127.html ). Ambassador Harold E. Doley, Jr., the former U.S. Representative to the African Development Bank, took the tact of suggesting that President Barack Obama assume a leadership position on the question of merit and nominate, in the first instance, the most qualified person irrespective of citizenship (Call to Appoint Finance Minister to Head World Bank http://allafrica.com/stories/201203070928.html).
Despite very different approaches to the issue Doley and Birdsall concur on one name, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. While the names of several fine Americans have been suggested, their experience, while substantial, is largely in other sectors. It is now anticipated that Dr. Okonjo-Iweala's will be nominated by President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala's background is largely unknown in the U.S. and for that matter, outside of the discreet circles of diplomacy, global finance, anti-corruption and those fighting poverty around the world. Yet her career bears scrutiny and her distinguished experience stands out.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is currently the coordinating minister for the economy and minister of finance for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the world's 31st largest economy. She has served the World Bank for 20 years as Vice President, Corporate Secretary, and Managing Director prior to returning to Nigeria. As Managing Director of the Bank, the number two position in the Group, she negotiated a $49.3 billion funding package for the International Development Association (IDA), an affiliated entity of the Bank. In Nigeria Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, has been fearless in her battles against corruption, has cut the country's looming debt burden and has been a staunch voice for good governance and transparency. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is a graduate of Harvard University (AB 1977, Magna Cum Laude) with a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In Nigeria Dr. Okonjo served as Finance Minister and then Foreign Minister between 2003 and 2006. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was the first woman to hold either of those positions in Nigeria. During her tenure in these roles, she is credited with building strong ties with the U.S. and closer relationships between American and Nigerian business interests. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala also engineered a landmark deal with the Paris Club of bilateral creditors to restructure $30 billion of Nigeria's external debt.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala would bring to that office her years of committed work on poverty reduction, the respect of world leaders from both the North and the South as well as a knowledge and understanding of what the World Bank needs at this critical period of global economic volatility.
The financial world has changed tremendously in recent years. We have restructured our financial and regulatory approaches to economic activity in Europe the U.S. and Asia. We need to prepare for the world of the future. Casting off the prejudices of the last century demands that we provide both the expectation and opportunity for leadership from the best and the brightest that the world has to offer, regardless of their national heritage. This is a monumental opportunity for the U.S. to display great leadership. It may demonstrate that it is committed to a qualitative and global, not a parochial vision. Support for Dr. Okonjo-Iweala will lead us to a better and a safer world faster than we will get there any other way. It is in my opinion, farcical in today's world, to not seriously consider the person who formerly held the number two position at the Bank solely because of her nationality, even more so because she was not born in the U.S. After all, she has held senior positions in the bank for 20 years.
Walter H. White, Jr. is an American lawyer practicing in emerging markets and living in London,; he formerly served as chair of the Central Asian American Enterprise Fund, appointed by President Clinton, and as past chair of the American Bar Association's African Rule of Law Initiative, and past Chair of the ABA Center for Human Rights.