Rockefeller Foundation boss favourite to succeed David Malpass at World Bank
The head of the Rockefeller Foundation, Rajiv Shah, has emerged as the favourite to succeed David Malpass as head of the World Bank amid calls for the White House to lose its stranglehold on choosing who should run the global development body.
Shah, a doctor, health expert and former head of the US Agency for International Development, is one of the names hotly tipped to be the Joe Biden’s administration choice as a replacement for Malpass following his announcement that he would be leaving his post by June.
But the likelihood that Washington will use a “gentleman’s agreement” under which the US picks the World Bank president while Europe chooses the managing director of its sister organisation – the International Monetary Fund – brought immediate calls for the process to be opened up.
“With the dismal Malpass gone, the US are already manoeuvring to appoint the new head of the Bank”, said Oxfam’s head of inequality policy, Max Lawson. “This neo-colonial 80-year-old stitch up has to end if the World Bank is to retain any credibility with the rest of the world.
“Joe Biden should back a fully transparent open recruitment process to show the world that his administration is different.”
The UK government accepts that the next World Bank president will have a US passport, which means the list of possible choices could include the current head of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was born in Nigeria but has American citizenship and previously worked at the bank for 25 years.
Kevin Watkins, the former head of the charity Save the Children, said: “It will be a US treasury appointment, which is outrageous. There should be a global search for the best candidate.”
Justine Greening, the former UK international
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