Scoop: World Bank reshuffles senior leadership ahead of reforms

The World Bank is making a number of leadership changes at the top as the institution bows to increasing pressure to reform and more effectively address mounting development and climate challenges, which Devex is the first to report. Anna Bjerde, who has led the bank’s work in Europe and Central Asia, was named new managing director of operations, replacing Axel van Trotsenburg, who has been promoted to senior managing director effective April 3. Bjerde anticipates being part of shareholder conversations about the newly released “evolution road map,” and will be in charge of implementing any changes that result, particularly those relating to the bank’s operating model. “Through this work, what we would like to do is to be able to see how we can become more effective, while on the one hand working to eradicate extreme poverty [and] also provide more protection so people can be helped and have more resilience and not fall into poverty,” she told Devex. Meanwhile, van Trostenburg, who has overseen operations since 2019, will be responsible for the bank’s development policy and partnerships. He will continue to co-lead — along with Chief Financial Officer Anshula Kant — the bank’s reform process, as well as its work to expand engagement on so-called global public goods, climate change, and debt sustainability. He will also lead the bank’s engagement with the United Nations, Group of 20 major economies, Group of 7, and other international financial institutions. The leadership changes aim “to support our evolution efforts,” World Bank Group President David Malpass said in a statement on Thursday. The bank’s road map aims to accelerate efforts to tackle the climate emergency, increase its capacity to fight poverty, and boost support to middle-income countries. Among the most high-profile proposals is a one-time capital increase. The leadership moves are meant “to help meet increasing global challenges, sharpen focus on global public goods and knowledge, and maintain the strong momentum on operational delivery and portfolio performance for World Bank client countries,” according to the statement. There is one additional change — Mari Pangestu, the World Bank’s managing director of development policy and partnerships, will retire. She oversaw the bank’s research and data group and worked to make the institution “the premier knowledge bank” on development issues, according to the statement. The roadmap, which was sent to shareholders last month, calls for the bank to negotiate with them on some of the proposals by the time of the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings in April. Earlier this week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Reuters she’d like to see quicker progress. Learning from Ukraine In her most recent role, Bjerde doubled the World Bank’s support to countries in Europe and Central Asia and spearheaded the bank’s rapid response efforts in Ukraine. The poverty-fighting lender has distributed $16.4 billion to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion early last year. In Ukraine, its response has focused on supporting social expenditures, including pensions and teacher salaries. It has also focused on mobilizing other partners so the World Bank is not working alone. “We’ve also innovated a lot, used the World Bank’s instruments and policies, really stretched them, combined them, turned them inside and out to see how we can provide the support to Ukraine maintaining of course the World Bank standards while being responsive and quick,” Bjerde told Devex. Her role in the Ukraine response will help in the new job, especially given the bank’s focus on conflict and fragile countries, and it’s part of why Bjerde believes she was selected for the position, she said. “What we’ve learned from this is when a country goes into conflict, as Ukraine did, we do need to be able to be fast and we do need to be creative and we really need to come together as the international community and I think that’s where I was recognized,” Bjerde said. She has three priorities in the job: better integrating the bank’s analytical work with country operations to more effectively transfer learnings from one context to another; working more closely, especially at the country level, with the other branches of the bank: the International Finance Corporation, the bank’s private sector arm, and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, a financial risk institution; and focusing on results and how program beneficiaries are impacted. “We need to be quick to restructure and change [projects] and not let problems linger,” she said. Bjerde said she supports the decentralized structure of the World Bank and will ensure its continued presence and close work on the ground internationally. She’s seen the importance of maintaining frontline teams during her stint overseeing the Ukraine response, and wants to “pay a lot of attention to how to nurture staff and help and support them in their day to day job.” She also wants to make it easier for staff to move between jobs and will ensure that locally recruited employees are part of the global workforce. Bjerde has been at the bank for about three decades, across most regions and in countries with vastly different levels of income. While part of her new job is addressing global, or “borderless,” challenges such as climate change, she wants the lender to take account of “each country’s development trajectory” and aspirations and not seek a one-size-fits-all solution.