World Bank staff point to ‘leadership crisis’ at global lender
Staff at the World Bank delivered a broadside against its sitting president this week, saying the global lender faced a “crisis of leadership” and risked irrelevance on the world stage. The rebuke, made in an open letter from the Bank’s staff association, came as informal talks have reportedly begun on choosing the Bank’s next president. Jim Yong Kim, the current president, whose term ends in less than a year, has not officially declared whether he wishes to stay on. “At the World Bank Group, we preach principles of good governance, transparency, diversity, international competition and merit-based selection,” said the letter from the staff association, which represents more than 15,000 employees. “Unfortunately, none of these principles have applied to the appointment of past World Bank Group Presidents.”
