Call for Changes at World Bank

The World Bank has faced calls to make changes to its presidential elections by including candidates who are non-American.

Traditionally the job has always gone to an American, but Nigeria’s finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said that she would like to see the role opened up to wider competition, and filled based on merit rather than nationality.

Since the formation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) following World War II, there has been a tacit agreement in place that the World Bank would be run by an American and the IMF by a European.

That agreement remains in place more than 60 years later; and, speaking to the BBC, Okonjo-Iweala said that “times have changed and I think the way positions are filled should change along with it”.

The current head of the Bank, Robert Zoellick, will step down on 30th June, and the U.S. has said that it will be nominating a candidate – with speculation that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is the most likely option.

Though keen to praise Zoellick – as well as IMF managing director Christine Lagarde – Okonjo-Iweala believes that there are candidates from developing countries who are just as capable of performing the roles, and that the organisation’s voting arrangement should change, saying: “You need to change the weights within the institutions to reflect the modern world.”