Paul D. Wolfowitz, who takes over today as president of the World Bank, says that Africa will top his agenda at the multilateral development bank.
"Nothing would be more satisfying than to feel at the end of however long a term I serve here that we played a role in changing Africa from a continent of despair to a continent of hope,'' he said Tuesday, at his first news conference.
Wolfowitz, who becomes the 10th president of the world's largest development organization, will demonstrate his commitment by traveling to Africa this month.
His renewed emphasis on Africa comes at a time when experts are again asking basic questions about what works in pulling countries out of poverty. One of the few things most development institutions agree on is the need for a large increase in development aid. The United Nations and the World Bank under James D. Wolfensohn, the departing president, have called for the world's rich nations to double the aid given to the poor.
Reuters adds Wolfowitz said the Bank's role in Africa was especially important given that a dozen or so countries were growing at unprecedented rates of five percent annually. Adding he was "cautiously hopeful," Wolfowitz said, "There is a long, long way to go but I would find nothing more satisfying than, at the end of my tenure at this institution, to feel that we have played a part in what hopefully could be a period when Africa went from a continent of despair, to a continent of hope."