New York Times Supports Okonjo-Iweala For World Bank Position

President Obama’s nomination of Jim Yong Kim to head the World Bank is an inspired choice. The South Korean-born medical doctor and president of Dartmouth College has a stellar reputation as a global health expert.
Still, there is a problem: Since the bank was founded, all the presidents have been American. Emerging economies, which contribute increasingly to global growth, are rightly demanding a greater say in decision-making. The World Bank job – and one at the International Monetary Fund, which traditionally goes to a European – ought to be filled on merit alone. That should not exclude qualified Americans, but neither should it guarantee them a job.
The bank needs a president with experience beyond Washington’s narrow political and economic circles.
 Dr. Kim has worked on development in the poorest countries. One major success: leading a World Health
 Organization initiative that provided access to

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H.I.V. treatment to millions of people. The new president must also tackle broader issues of economics and growth, and manage the prickly political leaders who are the bank’s overseers. That is why the bank board must take a serious look at Dr. Kim’s strongest challenger, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s finance minister. As a respected economist, diplomat and former World Bank managing director, she offers many conventional qualities of bank presidents. But she breaks the mold as a woman from an African country where she fought to reduce the country’s debt, gain greater access to international credit markets and battle corruption.
The other candidate is José Antonio Ocampo, the former Colombian finance minister and high-ranking United Nations official. He, too, is a credible contender with long experience in development and international policy.
 Robert Zoellick, who retires in June after five years, inherited a bank in serious trouble. He stabilized it, steered it ably through a global economic crisis and leaves it financially stronger, more focused and more inclusive – a tough act to follow.
Washington and Europe seem determined to ensure Dr. Kim’s election. The bank will almost certainly do well under his leadership. But it would do even better if the process for choosing the next president were truly competitive and fully transparent.