Pendulum swings back to regions with new World Bank reporting structure

WASHINGTON — World Bank President David Malpass announced changes to the institution’s reporting structures last week, aimed at strengthening the bank’s operations at regional and country levels, and undoing some of the remaining organizational changes implemented by his predecessor, Jim Kim. “These changes are intended to further simplify and streamline the matrix; create greater clarity for our staff through simpler lines of accountability and decision making; and more fully harness our global technical and financial capacity and knowledge to better fulfill our mission at the country and regional level,” Malpass wrote to staff in a Jan. 9 memo seen by Devex. With that in mind, Malpass announced that starting July 1 this year, the World Bank’s regional directors, as well as the practice managers and staff who report to them, will all be “re-mapped” so that their reporting lines go through the regional vice presidents. They had previously reported to the heads of the “Global Practices,” which Kim created to help develop the bank’s technical expertise on key cross-cutting issues, and to allow this knowledge to flow more freely to clients around the world. Last year, the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group found that while the structure Kim put in place helped with some aspects of knowledge sharing, its implementation led to “inefficiency, fragmentation, and internal competition” that risked jeopardizing the bank’s “ability to deliver for clients.” A bank staff representative told Devex the latest announcements was part of an ongoing effort to unwind Kim’s reorganization. “This move essentially completes the job of dismantling the misguided reforms that Jim Kim put in place. We are back to 2013 — before he arrived — leaving staff wondering why we were subjected to all that pain in the first place,” Daniel Sellen, chair of the World Bank staff association, wrote to Devex. Kim departed the institution one year ago, in the middle of his second term. Malpass assumed the presidency at the bank’s Spring Meetings in April 2019. The new president has repeatedly said that his primary focus is on delivering good development outcomes at the country level. “This strengthened link between practice staff and the region will help us to be even more responsive to client needs, reduce cross-GP silos, and further enhance our delivery at the region and country level,” Malpass wrote in the Jan. 9 memo. He added that Axel van Trotsenburg, the bank’s managing director of operations, will lead the implementation of these changes. Malpass also announced the creation of a new position, managing director for development policy and partnerships, to whom the global practice vice presidents, the development economics vice presidency, and the vice president for external and corporate relations will all report, beginning July 1. That position will be filled by Mari Pangestu, Indonesia’s former minister of trade. “These reporting line adjustments will enhance collaboration between Practice Groups within Regions and globally. They will strengthen our focus on country programs and ensure that the GPs and [Development Economics Vice Presidency] are better able to embed innovative, high-quality global expertise and knowledge in regional and country programs,” Malpass wrote. According to Sellen, “swinging the pendulum back” from global practices to regions, and from a sectoral to a regional focus, raises the same question that Kim sought to address with his reorganization: “How can we avoid working in regional silos?” “But this can be solved with sensible planning, such as hard-wiring cross-support, instead of the sledgehammer approach used in 2014,” Sellen wrote.