She listed issues she would address at the bank to include job creation and poverty alleviation.
According to Okonjo-Iweala, during the years of her service at the bank, she compiled a list of 11 major issues she said she found most frustrating about the way the institution works and which she shared with the bank’s board during her interview.
Top on the list of her “frustrations” was the lack of data to take decisions on poverty reduction in low-income countries. She said: “There’s a big gap there, we’ve not done enough. We haven’t come with instruments to deal with regional integration. Why? Is that beyond what we can think of?
“There are things that really frustrate me…You have to have the courage to say: look, certain things that we’ve always made this way, they have to go. The president has to be a leader, to have the vision, to have the courage. It takes a lot of courage…You know the bank has been around 60 years, there’s quite a bit of inertia.”
A group of 39 former World Bank officials, in a letter sent to bank members last week, said they supported the Nigerian economist’s candidacy because she has “deep experience in international and national issues of economic management.”
Okonjo-Iweala said her vision for leading the World Bank was influenced by her life story of growing up in a village in Nigeria and her experiences as an international economist.
According to her, “it is not good enough to say you know about poverty. You have to live it.”
As head of the World Bank, Okonjo-Iweala said she would focus on job creation, which was a problem facing rich and poor countries alike, adding: “Across the globe, policy makers are grappling with one problem, and that is the problem of job creation. I have yet to meet a single poor person who did not want the dignity of a job.”
She said her experience as finance minister and as managing director of the World Bank gave her unique insights into the complex problems facing emerging markets and developing countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Frustrating issues at the bank
She said the World Bank should also focus more on helping developing countries build roads, railway systems and power grids to help their economies grow, and it should invest more in education, health and gender issues. Okonjo-Iweala noted that complex global problems facing developing countries required a World Bank that could respond quickly and creatively to the needs of the poor.
She said: “We need a Rolodex of experts that we can call on very fast. The bank needs to be fast in delivering knowledge. Middle-income countries are no longer willing to wait when they need a question answered.”
While working at the World Bank, Okonjo-Iweala said she compiled a list of 11 issues that frustrated her the most about the institution, which she shared with the board during her interview, yesterday. On her list of frustrations was the lack of data to make vital decisions on poverty reduction in low-income countries.
US should break long tradition
She said the United States should take the lead and break the long tradition of an American always heading the World Bank.
After a “marathon” three-and-a-half-hour interview by the World Bank board, Okonjo-Iweala said the decision on who leads the global development institution should go to the candidate with the best skills for the job.
During her interview with the board, Okonjo-Iweala said she did not ask for the support of countries but pressed them to ensure that the selection process was open and merit based.
Under an informal agreement between the United States and Europe, an American has always headed the World Bank and a European has led the International Monetary Fund, IMF, since their founding after World War II. Rising economic powers such as China, India and Brazil have called for an end to the long-standing tradition and are demanding more influence in global finance institutions.
Okonjo-Iweala, who left a top post at the World Bank last year for a second stint as Nigeria’s finance minister, is up against former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo and US nominee Korean-American health expert Jim Yong Kim. Ocampo and Kim were set to be interviewed by the 25-member World Bank board yesterday and today respectively.
It is the first time that candidates from developing countries have challenged Washington for the top post. “Somebody has to break this” agreement, Okonjo-Iweala told an event hosted by the Centre for Global Development and Washington Post. “Therefore, who is the leader in this world? The US is looked on for that leadership,” she added.
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