World Bank President Ajay Banga calls job creation the “North Star” of the bank’s work, consistently returning to the topic during a town hall he held on Monday with civil society organizations during the World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Washington, D.C.
In part, the conversation steered back to jobs so frequently because Banga views the issue as the “ultimate outcome of development” and, as he often says, “the best way to kill poverty.”
When asked about the role of other areas of development — education, food, health — he said jobs do not replace that work, but it is the “goal that sits on top.”