Jim Wolfensohn’s departure from the World Bank Group engenders a great sense of loss on the part of those of us from the developing world, who have been beneficiaries of his strong passion for development.
As an African finance minister, one thing stands out for me. This is the manner in which the World Bank Group under Wolfensohn has put Africa at the centre of its poverty reduction agenda. In doing this, the Bank has also influenced and been influenced by other bilateral and multilateral agencies to do the same. Today, African countries experience much more of a partnership in their relations with the international community thanks largely to Wolfensohn’s tenacity and hard work.
He will be remembered in Africa for his leadership on the fight against malaria, HIV-AIDS, and other communicable diseases. He will be missed for their passion on education. He will also be respected as a true friend of Africa by all those who have a preference for the universal truth on the need to fight corruption and improve governance in Africa.
Wolfensohn will be remembered as an innovator and a visionary for his outstanding leadership on delivering billions of dollars in HIPC debt relief to low income countries.
As a former World Bank senior manager who worked closely with Wolfensohn for eight of his 10 years at the World Bank on East Asia, the Middle East, on change management, and on board relations, I can personally attest to the tremendous contributions he has made to the Bank and to the world of development at large. His decentralization of large numbers of Bank staff to country offices, and his construction of the “Knowledge Bank” are two such outstanding contributions. Another noteworthy is his comprehensive development framework and his support for the poverty reduction strategy paper.
Wolfensohn has always been one step ahead of the pack on the business of development and poverty reduction. Surely we have not heard the last of him in this endeavour.