Back in 2012, when Jim Yong
Kim was the president of Dartmouth College, he got a phone call from Dartmouth
alum and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner. Geithner told him the
government wanted to hire him away. Where did this unusual request come from?
The President of the United States. Barack Obama wished to nominate Dr. Kim to
become the next president of the World Bank. The World Bank is a part of the
World Bank Group that implements loans to developing countries in the attempt
to end poverty and illness while promoting economic development. Jim Young Kim
in a matter of only a week went from the president of Dartmouth College to the
president of the World Bank Group.
Jim Yong Kim was an unlikely
candidate; he is the first president that doesn’t have private sector
background. He’s not a banker, he’s not a lawyer, and he isn’t a government
official. He doesn’t even carry an economic degree. How is he running the World
Bank? Well, Dr. Kim is a physician, anthropologist, and academic, and he
carries a personal understanding of the World Bank’s goals. Dr. Kim carries
first hand experiences in treating patients in Haiti with significantly
cheaper, more effective medicine. Dr. Kim was the first to venture into
large-scale treatment programs and attempt to treat diseases in poor countries.
He has played a major role in promoting a treatment campaign for Aids in Africa
and has lead programs that have treated more than 7 million Africans with HIV
and counting. He carries a different perspective than any other World Bank
leader, he knows the realistic, first-hand experiences in attempting to end
poverty and cure illnesses.
Born in Korea, Jim Yong Kim
moved to a small town in Iowa, was the starting quarterback for his high
school, the starting point guard for his high school basketball team, and
president of his high school class. Oh yeah, he also has a mean golf game.
There really isn’t much this guy can’t do. After going into non-profits and
delivering primary healthcare to poor countries, he was the chairman of the
Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard University. He then
became the 17th president of Dartmouth College, making him the fist Asian American
to become a president of an Ivy League institution.
Although, there has been
controversy surrounding the World Bank. The World Bank has to make decisions of
what countries get these loans and grants. The loans and grants must come with
an agreement of a payback time period and at what interest rate. There are also
more detailed policies that come along with getting this loan. Even Dr. Kim
himself was at one point against the World Bank and participated in the
movement 50 Years is Enough, a campaign against the International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank. Since taking the presidency he has reformed the bank’s
famous bureaucratic system, and while they will always be criticism on where
the World Bank’s funds go, it continues to fight poverty and illnesses and
promote economic development wherever possible, and Dr. Kim deserves the credit
for the direction he is moving the World Bank in.
Info by:http://freakonomics.com/2015/02/19/hacking-the-world-bank-full-transcript/
