Posted on 12/13/2006 5:57:53 AM PST by A. Pole
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz faces mounting criticism from directors of the international lending organization, who say he relies on a coterie of political cronies who are advisers with little expertise in development while driving away seasoned managers. Half of the bank's 29 highest-level executives have departed since Wolfowitz, the former US deputy defense secretary and an neo-conservative architect of President George WBush's invasion of Iraq, took office in June 2005.
Among them was Christiaan Poortman, vice president for the Middle East and a 30-year World Bank veteran, who left in September after resisting pressure to speed up the pace of lending and adding staff in Iraq.
"It was very sad to see someone of Mr Poortman's caliber leaving," said Eckhard Deutscher, one of 24 executive directors who oversee the management of the Washington-based lender. "The bank needs to be very careful not to lose too much of its human capital."
The exodus is damaging the world's leading poverty-fighting institution, which last year contributed US$23.6 billion (HK$184.08 billion) for projects such as schools and clinics, say directors and outside observers.
Three directors said they are concerned governments might be less willing to contribute because of unhappiness with Wolfowitz, who came to the bank with a bad reputation.
The only other World Bank chief to sweep aside as many senior managers was his predecessor, James Wolfensohn, said Devesh Kapur, a former economist at the lender and author of The World Bank: Its First Half Century. He said the difference is that Wolfowitz appointees are short on expertise and long on political connections.
New faces include counsellor to the president Robin Cleveland, who as associate director of the White House Office of Management and Budget helped secure congressional funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Kevin Kellems, a former spokesman for US Vice President Dick Cheney, was named director of external strategy. Suzanne Rich Folsom, a lawyer who joined in 2003 and is the bank's chief corruption fighter, is married to George Folsom, who was principal deputy director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office and served as president of the International Republican Institute.
Wolfowitz, 62, "has placed considerably more trust in a small group of outsiders from the Republican Party than in the seasoned experts in the bank," said Alison Cave, head of the World Bank staff association, which represents more than 13,000 employees.
"The changes under Wolfowitz are unprecedented in the calculated manner in which inexperienced or ideological replacements are being placed in senior positions," said Kapur, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Among those who left the bank after disagreements with Wolfowitz are Roberto Danino, general counsel and a former prime minister of Peru; Ian Goldin, vice president for external affairs; and Gobind Nankani, vice president for Africa. Of the 14 executives who left, three had reached mandatory retirement age, according to the staff association.
Poortman, the bank's Middle East chief, resigned rather than accept an assignment in Kazakhstan, according to a colleague. Poortman declined to comment on that claim.
Wolfowitz, in a written statement from his press office, said plans for a "modest, incremental upgrading" of Iraq operations came in response to donor nations and were approved by the Middle East department.
And Kellems said that "change in senior posts throughout the bank has been more gradual than most people expected, and the senior management team is very international and composed of experienced professionals from a wide range of backgrounds and viewpoints."
A good working definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting a different result.
An example of something that is actually working is Greg Mortenson's Central Asia Institute
http://www.ikat.org/
They do one thing, they build schools in remote mountain villages of northern Pakistan, Afghanistan. (note they are expanding into Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia.)
Ok Ok I know they are people of the left, but IMO they are doing the Lords Works.
There are 100's of small groups out there that are actually getting things done in a small way.
IMO there will be nothing but miniscule benefits from aid UNLESS it is accompanied by changes in the political environment.
Unless private property is respected, no one will rise above what the government thugs haven't yet taken.
Ah, but the question is what is the best way to change the political environment? Top down, or bottom up? I guess I'm a bottom up kind of guy.
Well, so am I but let's be practical.
Most of these people either don't understand capitalism or don't know anything other than socialism/communism.
Any organization coming into a country educating the masses on the problems with their totalitarian government, and the benefits of the free market and private property, will find its members have a short life span or a short time in country.
The model of Radio Free Europe would be a good start, but it hasn't helped much in Cuba, for example.
I just don't see a solution; but I know that giving foreign aid to dictators doesn't work either.
Some (MANY) problems have NO SOLUTIONS. Darfur is only one of them...
I'm not a utopian who claims to have a big government solution for every problem. That kind of hubris got us involved in that hopeless Bosnia writ large called Iraq.
The elements of the Darfur conflict, in one form of another, dates back before recorded history. It is not just a religious fight but a struggle for control between nomadic types, who want to graze their cattle for free, and villagers who want to farm. If you believe that Wolfy has the "solution," I don't think you are being realistic.
Exactly. It is strange that many conservatives who sensibly criticize social engineering plans such as wars on poverty don't see the even greater difficulties of plunging head-long in the tribal mess of Darfur.
We agree. Wish there were more logical conservatives in our country (like us).
:)
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