"We must grow from being a 'knowledge'-bank to being a 'solution'-bank." This is the new agenda of the new World Bank president Jim Yong Kim. Dr Kim is a Japanese-speaking Korean. He moved from Korea to the United States of America at the age of five. Being an anthropologist and a social worker, now he is the president of the World Bank (WB). From an immigrant to a president of the World Bank, he is the first Asian American to be the head of this Washington-based multilateral capital donor. It is a long way for him.

Mr Kim has crossed that long way, his daily life having been full of struggle and experience. Through struggle, he has understood that the daily life of the human being is the best book of the world. That is why he has given the clarification on how his dream 'solution-bank' will work. He said, "..as a solution-bank, we will work with our partners, clients, and local communities to learn and promote a process of discovery. Through decades of development work I've learned that the best solutions to economic and social problems often lie with the individuals and communities coping with these challenges in their daily life. They have been my greatest teachers. We must listen to, and act on, their insights."

We know the history of the World Bank. It was founded 68 years before as a 'reconstruction bank' focused on rebuilding Europe after the Second World War. Robert McNamara, the radical chief of this global body, changed the character of the World Bank (WB). He is the first man who made the WB as an institution for the whole world. Mr McNamara transformed it from a reconstruction bank to a 'lending bank'. He extended funding for poverty reduction in the developing countries. It was then a great decision for the WB and for promotion of the developing countries' socio-economical and political interests. It was also a reflection of the European and American policy towards the developing countries at that stage. However, the WB got itself transformed into a knowledge-bank after the era of Mr McNamara.

Now its first Asian-American president wants to write a new chapter for the WB. About his new chapter, Kim has said, "I believe it is time for us to write the next chapter in our evolution: it is time for us to become a 'solution'-bank. We must listen, learn, and be partner with countries and beneficiaries to build bottom-up solutions. This is how we will increase our relevance and our value in today's and tomorrow's global economy."

In the present-day world, the developing countries are searching for new solutions to a different set of challenges; they aim at ensuring the participation of their poor people in the growth process. Such countries want to close their infrastructure and energy deficits. Besides that, they want second-generation policy reforms, embracing their roles as responsible and generous stakeholders in the global system. The low income countries are also searching for new solutions to help accelerate growth, boost competitiveness, and lift their citizens out of poverty. In addition to that, the fragile states, according to the WB, now want to overcome conflict and to ensure security, justice and jobs. Even then, in his address to the plenary session of the annual summit of the WB this year, the WB president gave two examples. One relates to the case of an old woman of Honduras and another is that of a mother in India. The old woman of Honduras said for their safety, they want more police but they need, above all, more jobs. The mother in India said they do not just want to escape poverty; they want to build and achieve all dimensions of prosperity such as good health, higher incomes, quality education and justice.

The demand and the situation as such are only new but also very different from any time of the past. And the demand of the society and the transition of the world economy are basically in favour of writing a new chapter. In this situation, the decision of Mr Jim Yong Kim is not only right but also the only way; there is no other alternative. The WB must have to write a new chapter and this chapter is obviously its transformation into a 'solution-bank'. But how they will write this chapter? In his address to the plenary session of the annual conference of the WB this year, Mr Kim said that the fuel of his life is a citation of Martin Luther King Jr. He, thus, quoted the latter, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." He further stated that he would like to carry it with himself to the WB Group. Is it possible for him to bend it towards justice? Mr Kim has said, it is a challenge to bend the arc and he has accepted that challenge. Why has he to bend the arc towards justice? About this, he said, "with over one billion people living in extreme poverty and 200 million unemployed, now it is not the time to go our own way or to focus only on our own narrow interests."

In such a world, one cannot focus on one's narrow interest only. Organisations like the WB should have broader, long-term goals to serve. The WB is not only a bank but also the global development organisation. So when the world economy is changing, the demand of the people of world have also been changing. The WB must also change. Mr Kim wants this change. He said, "to be an effective solution-bank, we will need to seek answers beyond our walls". Besides that, Mr Kim said in an interview with a newspaper, "we are going to eliminate the bureaucracy." To eliminate bureaucracy, he will like to run the WB in a befitting way. "First we'll be establishing a clear and measurable bottom line…… second we're strengthening our implementation results …. third, we will rapidly improve our ability to provide our clients with integrated solutions for maximum impact…….fourth, we need to continue investing data and analytic tools, building on the success of the Open Data initiative."

So it is clear that Mr Kim has a detailed plan to bring about changes to the WB from a bureaucratic knowledge-bank to a solution-bank. It is a revolutionary programme. Mr McNamara also did a great deal of changes to the WB. It was also the demand of the then bi-polar world. Now, in this unipolar world, it is also the demand of the world to make a change to the WB in accordance with to-day's the socio-economical demand. Mr Kim is fully appreciative of this need. So he has accordingly drawn up the agenda for this.

Now the centre of the global economy is changing in a unipolar world. But identification of the centre of this economy involves an uncertain process. Many political transformations are changing the demand and the movement of the global economy at every moment. So, the present time is more indecisive and unpredictable in character than that of the bipolar world. That is why it will be relevant to see how Mr Kim will move forward to bring about appropriate changes to the WB to realise his dream about its becoming a solution-bank. He is a dreamer and an optimist.

News: The Daily Financial Express/Bangladesh/8th-Dec-12