DENVER, Colo. — Jim Yong Kim has spent the past two years restructuring the World Bank to align with his vision of a poverty-free world with more efficient institutions to back his initiatives.
With a bachelor’s in arts and sciences from Brown University and an M.D. and doctorate from Harvard University, Kim is far from unqualified, despite criticisms about his lack of economic background. Before Obama decided Kim was the right choice for the bank, Kim had taken on various global health initiatives to address his desire to eradicate poverty.
Jim Yong Kim co-founded Partners in Health, which is an initiative based in Haiti to boost community health. Convinced that the World Health Organization was taking the wrong approach in producing and administering drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment, Kim’s organization worked to decrease the cost.
There were two positive outcomes: the WHO was persuaded to alter its methods and it also reached out to Kim to run its HIV/Aids program in 2003.
While heading the HIV program, Kim set the goal to treat three million patients within the first two years. Though this goal was not reached, his methods and motivation have been largely credited as factors in minimizing HIV fatalities.
“There was pace and rhythm in the way we did things,” said Kim about his work for the WHO. “We think we can do something similar for poverty.”
With these health-oriented events in his past, Kim has been criticized as being too focused on that aspect rather than the many other problems the world faces today. He says that’s not the case though and that other issues are crucial as well.
“The private sector has to grow, you have to have social protection mechanisms, you have to have a functioning health and education system,” Kim said.
He’s determined to improve these elements to better the world.
Since he was chosen in 2012, Kim has continued to set big goals and inspire those around him to achieve them. He hopes that the efforts of the World Bank and other partner organizations will end extreme poverty by 2030, and changes have already been made to achieve that goal.
In the past, the World Bank has lent to developing countries, often taking a backseat to the International Monetary Fund. With the restructuring that took effect on July 1, the bank will take a more global stance on approaching issues of poverty, focusing on 14 different issue areas including healthcare, economy, water supply and agriculture.
The “new” World Bank seeks to establish a creative environment where open discussion will lead to big ideas. With criticism about his capability and priorities, Kim faces many challenges in the years ahead, but he is determined to eradicate poverty.
“They said poverty would always be with us,” Kim said. “Well, maybe not.”
– Maggie Wagner
Sources: Forbes, The Independent, The Guardian, Institutional Investor
Photo: The Huffington Post