13 January 2005
By Manish Bapna and Nikki Reisch
Published in the Financial Times: January 13 2005
From Mr Manish Bapna and Ms Nikki Reisch.
Sir, While your editorial "The wrong kind of executive search" (January 11) raises a valid point about the need for greater attention to merit in the selection of the head of the World Bank, it does not go far enough in exposing the structural flaws in the bank's governance.
Even with the ideal search committee in place, a reformed process for selecting the institution's leader cannot on its own strengthen the legitimacy of the bank. Its decision-making structures are fundamentally unbalanced. Increasing the bank's legitimacy entails, at a minimum, overcoming this "democratic deficit".
First, the bank requires a more equitable distribution of power on its board. Donors continue to hold the reins, while borrowing countries, whose citizens are impacted by the bank's operations, have a limited voice. The US alone controls 16 per cent of the vote, while all of sub-Saharan Africa holds a mere 5 per cent. Even India and China - the Bank's largest borrowers, and formidable economies in their own right - together have less than 6 per cent of the vote.
Without greater transparency and more effective channels of accountability, redistributing power on the board is a necessary but insufficient condition to democratising development. Therefore, decision-making processes at the bank must also be made more transparent. And access to information is the cornerstone of transparency. It allows broader public participation in shaping development projects and policies and in measuring their impacts.
Even under the leadership of a qualified president, if the bank continues to take decisions behind closed doors it risks perpetuating its image as a technocratic power far removed from the reality on the ground and out of the reach of ordinary citizens.
Finally, the legitimacy and effectiveness of the institution cannot be improved without stronger lines of accountability to the public. Government bureaucrats, typically nominated by their respective ministries of finance, serve as directors on the board of the World Bank. However, the channels that link them to the citizens they are supposed to represent are often weak. Initiatives to increase the ability of elected officials and citizens to oversee their designated representatives and bank operations more generally offer a step in the right direction.
The legitimacy and effectiveness of the World Bank will ultimately be measured by the impact of its economic policies on the poor. It will take more than a change in how it chooses its next leader for the World Bank to embrace a more equitable approach to development. Manish Bapna, Executive Director, Nikki Reisch, Africa Program Co-ordinator, Bank Information Center Washington, DC 20005, US
This letter is in response to a Financial Times editorial: