According to the Financial Times, Zoellick is leading the pack of contenders for the position of President of the World Bank.
Senior US administration officials expect a decision on the successor to Paul Wolfowitz, who steps down as bank president on June 30 following an ethics scandal, to be announced this week in Washington.” more…
Three finance ministers who have headed the G20 — the talking shop spearheaded by the Canadians, not the maverick grouping that formed at the WTO meeting in Cancun — issued statements on Sunday calling for an open, merit-based process to choose the next WB President. Guido Mantega of Brazil and Trevor Manuel of South Africa were joined by Peter Costello of Australia — which I believe makes Australia the first “Northern” (developed/industrialized/first world) country to publicly call for the U.S. to back off.
Reuters is reporting that South Africa is pushing the US to abide by an agreement of the Group of 20 economic powers for an open and transparent appointment of the new head of the World Bank. more…
One of Sweden’s largest newspapers, SvD Brannpunkt, ran a comment on Wednesday demanding changes in the process for selecting the president of the Bank. For those of you who don’t read Swedish, translation of key points from a colleague at Forum Syd follows. more…
Reuters reports that South African finance minister Trevor Manuel signalled on Wednesday that he was not interested in succeeding Wolfowitz and added that he had not been approached directly about the job. Manuel couldn’t resist the opportunity for a well-deserved dig at the Americans: “I am a proud South African and the Americans see the World Bank’s presidency as their birthright.”
Washington thinktank, the Center for Global Development, has posted an online survey which allows respondents to rank nine potential candidates on their merits for the post, and to comment on what changes are needed to the process. more…
Besides being a fascinating insight into the workings of the wonderfully quirky British House of Lords, this transcript shows that Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, Lord Hamilton of Epsom, and Lord Lea of Crondall are all terribly vexed over the selection of the next World Bank president. more…
Lest the Europeans forget the statement they made at the IMFC meeting just a month ago: “EU member states are ready to engage in a discussion of the appropriate selection criteria and processes for the senior management in all IFIs.” I may be wrong about this, but I don’t think in most people’s books ‘appropriate’ equals ‘kowtow to Bush’?
Greenpeace political analyst Daniel Mittler puts forward some credible names that we’re unlikely to hear from the White House.
Colleagues in France have reminded us of this somewhat enigmatic response to a question whether France would push for opening up the process of leadership selection. It came from a French government spokesperson at a press conference before the Wolfowitz resignation. more…
