Awaiting revamp, World Bank staff holds breath

The World Bank has entered 2014 with a long list of to-dos after a year full of headline announcements. Eighteen months into Jim Kim’s term as president of the Washington, D.C.-based institution, staff, shareholders and outside observers are eagerly anticipating the implementation of his ambitious internal reorganization, with some expressing concern that the internal reforms have put the bank’s real work on standby. “As long as the bank is not organized in a way that gets work done because it’s busy reorganizing, there’s inevitably going to be concern about the bank’s credibility as a partner and its effectiveness,” Paul Cadario, a former senior manager at the World Bank and now a senior fellow in global innovation at the University of Toronto, told Devex. “So the sooner the bank can get the details out as to how this is going to work, and how things are going to change, the better.” The institution’s new focus on ending extreme poverty — combined with a strategy to reorganize itself into a “solutions bank” and a pledge to slash $400 million from the operational budget — convinced many observers that the reform was going to be more significant than past efforts to shake up the World Bank. But critical details of the implementation — where budget savings will come from, who will be overseeing the new “global practices,” and how those offices will fit into the traditional country-centric business model — remain shrouded in mystery months after the initiatives were announced. “It’s really hard to go full-throttle when you have this uncertainty,” said one economist at the bank who spoke to Devex on condition of anonymity. “The phrase you hear a lot around the bank these days is ‘nothing is set in stone,’ but at this point, I’d like to see a couple of stones.” ‘Radio silence’ from the top In one of the few public signs of internal disruptions, the institution abruptly canceled its flagship recruiting program for young professionals in December, citing “major restructuring — the first in a generation.” Candidates were instructed to apply again next year. “Is the World Bank in chaos?” Eva Vivalt, a post-doctoral fellow at New York University’s Development Research Institute, wrote in response to the cancellation. She noted that the program, which is something of an institution at the bank, hadn’t been suspended during large reorganizations in the past. Applicants to the program were furious, and even bank staff were surprised that it was cancelled so suddenly six months into the application process. And while some uncertainty may be inevitable during such a large internal revamp, insiders say that a lack of communication contributed to general anxiety about the reforms. The “radio silence” from the top, as some have characterized it, has only heightened expectations for the announcements to come this spring from the World Bank. When shareholders meet for their annual meetings in mid-April, they will discuss next year’s budget and the progress of reforms. The budget should outline the major shifts in resources that Kim has promised, as well as details of the streamlined operations and changes to the business model. Ready by July? World Bank directors have pledged to have the institution “fit-for-purpose” by July 1, the first day of the bank’s fiscal year. As important as the budget are details about who will run the global practices, what kind of budget they will have, and how the new management model will change the way the bank works with countries. Following the job vacancies for global practices directors announced in November, the bank said these appointments should be finalized by early March. With two new vice presidents already in place above them, the senior executives will likely shape the character of each of the 19 new technical offices, and how smoothly they are able to transition staff. However given the institution’s strong internal culture, recruiting outsiders for such high-level positions could pose challenges. After impressing staff with an extremely consultative “diagnostic” that fed into the bank’s new strategy, Jim Kim may have lost some of the goodwill he earned as the pieces of the strategy were announced. The implementation of the plan over the next few months could make or break the president’s reputation among staff. “I think if he gets it right, the poor communication will be forgiven,” said the economist. “But if he get’s it wrong, he will be judged harshly.” Read more development aid news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive top international development headlines from the world’s leading donors, news sources and opinion leaders — emailed to you FREE every business day.