The World Bank Group’s flagship event – the Spring Meetings – was held recently in Washington DC under the theme “Jobs: The Path to Prosperity.”
The event, conducted both in person and online, buzzed with urgency and ambition. Yet, amid the weighty discussions, a moment of levity stood out when Marco, a French-Nigerian attendee, posed a question to World Bank Group President Ajay Banga: “You’ve been at the Bank for two years. What’s been easier and harder than you expected? And why are you confident about tackling the jobs crisis?”
Banga, leaning into his trademark candour, responded without hesitation. “The people here,” he said, his tone upbeat. “Their expertise is staggering. If I want to learn about water systems, I call someone, and within an hour, I’m educated enough to be ‘dangerous’ in a conversation.” The room chuckled as he savoured the word. “Dangerous in the best way,” he clarified. “These aren’t just academics. They’ve lived this work globally. That’s a rare asset, and not something I fully grasped before joining.
His tone then shifted as he addressed one of the Bank’s biggest internal hurdles: silos.
“The difficult part is getting all of this to work together in a way that unlocks the multiplier effect – the synergy from different parts of the World Bank Group operating as one well-oiled machine. We have the public side of our Bank, and we have the private side. On the private side, there’s a capital arm, a guarantee arm, and an investment dispute settlement arm. Over time, these have grown in ways that created silos. And as anyone in an organisation knows, silos are human nature.”
Banga noted that efforts such as the Private Sector Lab and the Jobs Council which engage external expertise have helped break down these barriers.
“It’s hard, but we’re making headway. Why do I feel confident about jobs? Because now is the time to unite our resources. We can deliver public infrastructure through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), regulatory guidance through our Knowledge Bank, and private-sector tools via the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Few organisations have this capability in-house. That’s where my confidence comes from,” he said.
According to the World Bank, 1.2 billion people in emerging economies will reach working age over the next decade, yet only about 420 million jobs are projected to be created. The urgency of finding scalable and sustainable employment solutions, therefore, has never been greater.
Ajay Banga met with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on May 7 at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo. The visit marked a milestone, as it was the first time in nearly two decades that a World Bank Group President had visited Sri Lanka.
from The Island https://ift.tt/Ui8nlWa
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