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The people behind the World Bank

The Banker profiles four senior figures at the World Bank, looking at their most significant achievements to date, as well as their goals and ambitions for the future.
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SRI MULYANI

Nationality: Indonesian

Current position: Managing director, World Bank, and member of the senior management change team co-ordinating the work of the bank’s various sector and regional divisions to establish a single reporting structure and encourage synergies.

Previous job: Indonesia’s minister of finance.

Goals: “The development role of the bank, and my role overseeing its large portfolio, is trying to make sure that we can combine financial and human resources with the 66 years of knowledge and experience we have, so that they are all tailored to the needs of the client, delivered effectively, and with results and goals.”

Aims and achievements: In Tunisia, after the 2012 Arab Spring uprisings spread into the country, the bank quickly provided financing to the newly elected government. This was beneficial not only because of the money it provided, but also because disbursement was conditional on policy changes widely sought by Tunisian citizens, namely improvements in the delivery of basic services, more accountability in the use of public funds and freedom of information.

Lessons learnt: When advising governments to eliminate fuel subsidies, which are harmful to the environment and do little to benefit the poor (and can be replaced with better-focused social safety nets), the bank has learnt that, while such a policy is fiscally advantageous, middle-income groups may suffer from an increase in fuel prices. So, learning how to manage that trade-off when applying this policy in different countries is a lesson the bank has learnt not only to its own benefit but to the benefit of other member countries faced with making a similar choice.

What others say: Nancy Birdsall, founding president, the Centre for Global Development: "Ms Mulyani is widely acknowledged to be very good [as a managing director at the World Bank]. Everyone says she is excellent. And she’s certainly very highly regarded in Indonesia.” 

CAROLINE ANSTEY

Nationality: UK

Current position: Managing director, World Bank, and member of the senior management change team merging the IT platforms, human resources and external affairs policies of the four World Bank organisations for the first time. Also in charge of this year’s effort to raise funds from World Bank donors for International Development Association, the bank’s concessional credit facility.

Previous jobs: Political assistant to former UK prime minister James Callaghan; editor, BBC TV.

Goals: “If the World Bank Group is to meet its goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030, scaling up work on empowering women and on helping post-conflict countries has to be a priority. This is because in 25 years, the vast majority of the poor will be living in fragile, post-conflict countries.

"It has been demonstrated in bank-supported conditional cash transfer programmes in 33 countries that giving money to the women in the household is smart economics. It is good for children’s health. It is good for children’s education. It is good for ensuring resources flow back to the household and the community. You give the money to the man and its a very different story.”  

Aims and achievements: In previous bank work, as country director for the Caribbean, a region frequently struck by hurricanes, Ms Anstey’s department fielded a new catastrophe risk insurance with the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, the bank’s guarantee agency – an innovation which cleared the way for immediate budget assistance. This was an issue as, in the aftermath of such disasters, governments in the area often could not even pay civil servants’ wages.

Lesson learnt: According to Ms Anstey, the bank has learnt that for development projects to be successful they need to be transparent and accountable, and also give a strong role to citizens. So, in countries where there are issues of governance and/or corruption, such as  the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan, the bank is now including citizen feedback, using mobile phones, or other simple hand-held devices, in all service delivery projects whenever possible. This makes it possible for feedback to be obtained quickly and for the district school, health or sanitation authority to make mid-course corrections in the delivery of services if problems occur. 

What others say: Ms Birdsall at the Centre for Global Development: “Ms Anstey is very good. She is loyal to the institution in a smart way. She is generally seen as extremely effective and talented.”

BERTRAND BADRÉ

Nationality: French

Current position: Managing director for finance and CFO at the World Bank since March 1, 2013.

Previous jobs: Group chief financial officer, Société Générale; group chief financial director, Crédit Agricole; vice-president, Lazard New York.

Goals: “We are not that big... but we have convening power. The name, the World Bank, is a great name and with that name we can attract and leverage. That’s what we should do. We should be able to attract the private money from pension funds, from sovereign wealth funds, from central banks, all the liquidity that is searching for yield today. So it is not just about our money and managing it. It’s about making people work with us. It is also our duty to help the new South-South flow [from richer emerging markets or Brazil, Russia, India and China, the BRICs, to poor countries] in a good way.” 

Aims and achievements: Getting a university education in Colombia can be a challenge, mainly because of the lack of financial options for students. But this year, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the bank’s private sector facilitator, helped make Colombian universities more affordable by structuring a mechanism with local intermediaries that extends the terms of student loans issued in Colombian pesos to 20 years. Meanwhile, recently in the Dominican Republic, in the first ever domestic placement by an international AAA rated issuer, the IFC issued a 390m pesos ($9.13m) bond to support this small Caribeean country’s capital market development.

Lessons learnt: Development finance has changed dramatically in the past 10 to 15 years. Now, with about $120bn in public development assistance per year and more than $1bn of private sector investments in development, the World Bank has to adjust to the idea of public and private sector finance working together much more and also to the fact that private sector finance is now the main driver of growth and jobs.

It also has to adapt to a world where the BRICs have emerged, which means different clients and stakeholders. And finally there have been significant changes in the financial world as a result of the crisis, all of which requires a new strategy at the bank and a new business model.

JIN-YONG CAI

Nationality: Chinese

Current position: Executive vice-president and CEO at the IFC, the World Bank’s private sector development and financing arm.

Previous jobs: Top executive for Goldman Sachs in China for 12 years; senior positions in Morgan Stanley’s investment banking division including being seconded to China International Capital Corporation at its inception.

Goals: “I want to make the IFC the bridge, the enabler, the catalyst to help the user of capital get finance, particularly long-term finance, which is critical for building the badly needed infrastructure in developing countries; and also to facilitate capital flows, and the exchange of goods and ideas, among different emerging markets, from south to south.”

The IFC, based on its "brand accomplishments” and track record, is “uniquely placed to pick up and step up on that flow”, says Mr Cai.

Aims and achievements: One success story, says Mr Cai, is the assistance the IFC provided to the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), a co-operative owned by 500,000 Kenyan small farmers. Kenya is a major exporter of high-grade teas. But, to compete and grow in a global economy, KTDA needed to modernise its processing, marketing and transport facilities and the small farmers needed training on larger scale tea cultivation. The project helped the farmers become more productive, have more secure jobs and join the middle class.

Lessons learnt: According to Mr Cai, an unresolved issue in development is that many poor countries still lack basic infrastructure despite ample evidence showing that when clean water, basic electricity and basic transport are installed, health and education services improve and private enterprise picks up. So, the World Bank is considering setting a goal of increasing electricity to two-thirds of the population in sub-Saharan Africa over the next 10 years, compared to about half of the population, or even just 10% electricity access in most of these African countries now.

What others say: Peter Chowla, coordinator at the Bretton Woods Project: “Mr Cai quite clearly was appointed because there is a strategy that the IFC do more business in conjunction with Chinese banks. Chinese banks are investing heavily in Africa, in Latin America, in developing countries generally. The IFC would like to work alongside them. So Mr Cai comes in with a lot of connections, a lot of knowledge about how the Chinese banking system works. That is very helpful for the World Bank.”

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Read more about:  World Bank