When physician, anthropologist and former president of Dartmouth College Jim Yong Kim became president of the World Bank in 2012, he told the international development community that he planned to turn the world’s largest multilateral donor into a “solutions bank” — one that works with its partners and clients to apply “evidence-based, nonideological solutions to development challenges.”
He said the World Bank would advance a “science of delivery” to help governments and implementers follow through on commitments and overcome obstacles — to move beyond what needs to be accomplished, and tap into how it gets done — to develop a systematized global library of development knowledge that can be applied to development hurdles around the world.
Since Kim first used the term “science of delivery,” bank staff and thought leaders in the development space have engaged on the concept — debating whether global development should be equated to a “science”, and raising questions over how that science — if it exists — should be enacted.
About the author
Jeff Tyson@jtyson21
Jeff is a former global development reporter for Devex. Based in Washington, D.C., he covers multilateral affairs, U.S. aid, and international development trends. He has worked with human rights organizations in both Senegal and the U.S., and prior to joining Devex worked as a production assistant at National Public Radio. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in international relations and French from the University of Rochester.
