David Malpass will walk out of the World Bank on Thursday for the last time as president, happy with his four years at the helm of the global anti-poverty lender, but insisting the organization must “leave no stone unturned” in its reforms to better tackle rising poverty, high inflation, and the climate crisis.
“The bank has been good at evolving to meet the current needs of the shareholders and of the broader stakeholders. I think being willing to make changes is important,” he told Devex in an exit interview. Nothing should be off limits, he said, if it means delivering better results.
He knows the biggest transformation he personally would want to see: If he had just one wish for a magical genie in a lamp, he would ask for a resolution to the debt crisis battering the world’s lowest-income nations.
About the author
Shabtai Gold
Shabtai Gold is a Senior Reporter based in Washington. He covers multilateral development banks, with a focus on the World Bank, along with trends in development finance. Prior to Devex, he worked for the German Press Agency, dpa, for more than a decade, with stints in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, before relocating to Washington to cover politics and business.
