Harvard Professor Slams Obama's World Bank Nomination

[emezico]

Amidst early praise for President Obama's nomination of Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim as head of the World Bank, Lant Pritchett, a tenured professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government who worked at the World Bank for 17 years, is blasting Kim's nomination as "a terrible idea."

Says Pritchett, who teaches courses in the practice of international development, "It's an embarrassment to the U.S. You cannot with a straight face say this person is the most qualified to lead the World Bank."

An infectious disease specialist, Kim helped found a Boston-based nonprofit called Partners in Health that trains community health workers in developing countries to make home visits to treat diseases like TB. Kim also directed the World Health Organization's department of H.I.V./AIDS. But unlike past World Bank presidents, he has no experience in banking, policy making, economics or development. Kim has been president of Dartmouth for the last three years. Kim was also awarded a MacArthur "genius" fellowship in 2003, and was born in Seoul, South Korea, moving to the U.S. with his family at age 5.


Obama With World Bank president nominee, Jim Yong Kim


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