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Departing World Bank president James Wolfensohn said Sunday the powerful development lender had turned from a "policeman" into a partner of poor nations under his 10-year stint in the helm, reports Agence France Presse.  Wolfensohn, speaking after the bank's last spring meeting under his presidency, said he was proud that he had placed the fight against poverty at the heart of the organization’s mandate. "The greatest satisfaction I have got is from having the bank become more of a partner than a policeman with the developing world," he told a news conference after the bank's last major gathering before he steps down in just over a month. "I think the relationship of my colleagues with clients has transformed totally. That does not mean that you can't have disagreements," the 71-year-old added. "But it does mean that you work with the countries and the people that you're dealing with, and that they're running the show, not us." Wolfensohn will be replaced on June 1 by US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a "neoconservative" whose appointment has filled many in the anti-poverty community with dread.
Under Wolfensohn's watch, the World Bank has reoriented its focus onto community-based projects designed to ease poverty in the developing world rather than grandiose infrastructure schemes. "All of us are now recognizing that poverty alleviation and peace is not a job for one institution, it's a job for all of us," Wolfensohn said. "May I say I think it's also a job for the press and the media ... to understand that this is not just the next headline. This is something that really matters," he added. "I think that the bank, in its really more passionate pursuit of poverty issues and environmental issues today, has a made a lot of progress, and I am very proud of that."
In a separate piece, Agence France Presse adds Wolfensohn received an adulatory ovation this weekend. With a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers being held in Washington this weekend, the great and the good of global finance were on hand to bid Wolfensohn farewell. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told a joint session of the IMF and World Bank that he looked forward to working with Wolfowitz. "But I cannot let this occasion pass without a special word of thanks to Jim, who over the last 10 years has made the World Bank a true campaigner against world poverty, and an ever closer partner of the United Nations," he said.
US Treasury Secretary John Snow paid tribute to Wolfensohn's "extraordinary leadership" at the World Bank, and said Wolfowitz would be an "outstanding" successor. Finance ministers from the G24 bloc of developing nations expressed "appreciation for the valuable service" provided by Wolfensohn, particularly "his effort to make poverty reduction the focus of the bank's operations". Paul Toungui, Gabon's minister of state for finance and the G24 chairman, said the group now hoped "the orientation of the World Bank's actions will not change, because those of Wolfensohn were going in the right direction".
But for campaigners, the news agency writes, Wolfensohn leaves a job half done. The bank's conditions on its loans are still far too tough, they argue. "Wolfensohn's swan song has been to call for an end to poverty," Oxfam International spokeswoman Caroline Green said. "The stage has been set for years and the world's poor are tired of dress rehearsals. Rich countries must now act," she said, after the G7 nations failed to find any breakthrough on debt relief.
Agence France Presse further writes that World Bank president-elect Paul Wolfowitz was omnipresent at weekend meetings of finance chiefs in Washington as he tried to charm skeptics fearful of where the high priest of neo-conservatism will take the lender. The 61-year-old US deputy defense secretary was to be seen at every turn as the World Bank and IMD held their spring meetings. The gathering was organized in tandem with talks among the Group of Seven nations, allowing Wolfowitz to meet French Finance Minister Thierry Breton for the first time. A spokesman for Breton described the 45-minute meeting as "friendly and convivial", while adding: "Paul Wolfowitz's comments before his approval were encouraging, but now he has to deliver on these commitments."
Reuters finally reports that Wolfensohn, who was newly named to represent major powers in coordinating Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, said on Sunday he may visit Israel and Gaza as early as next week. Wolfensohn said he would focus on economic and social development in Palestinian territories and on marshaling international support. "What I am hoping to do is to help them, particularly on the issues of economic and social development, and trying to bring the international community together in support of both restoration of hope in the Palestinian territories and new outlook for people in terms of jobs, in terms of opportunities," he said. Wolfensohn said he would rely on a World Bank analysis released in December on rebuilding the Palestinian economy after the withdrawal. The report said the Palestinian economy was unlikely to shake off stagnation unless Israel eased the movement of goods and people to and from the Palestinian territories, and there was a Palestinian commitment to security reform.
Agence France Presse adds Wolfensohn said: "When I go over there, my first task is to listen to what everybody thinks. I have been involved with this for 10 years, so I'm very familiar with the players and with the background," he said referring to his time at the World Bank's helm. US President George W. Bush said Wolfensohn's mission would be to work with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas "to help him build a government; to help them try to pull out of this ash heap of what used to exist".
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