Zoellick Better Fit at World Bank Than Wolfowitz, Sachs Says

By Matthew Benjamin

Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- World Bank President Robert Zoellick is an improvement over his predecessor Paul Wolfowitz, said Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs, a prominent advocate for aid to developing countries.

Zoellick ``is a talented person. If he chooses the right course, we could see some good results,'' Sachs said in an interview to be broadcast this weekend on ``Conversations with Judy Woodruff,'' a Bloomberg television program.

Zoellick became president of the Washington-based international lender in July. Sachs said Wolfowitz, who quit in May after an uproar over his role in a pay increase for his companion, wasn't qualified for the position.

``Why Wolfowitz -- of all the people in the world, a guy that had no development experience, was not equipped to run the bank, had no strategy -- why should he be World Bank president?'' Sachs asked. ``He was absolutely the wrong guy for the job.''

Sachs' critique prompted a rebuttal from Wolfowitz who, in an e-mail response to questions, defended his record.

``We provided record levels of financial support to the world's poorest countries, particularly in Africa in each of those two years, and provided it more rapidly and more focused on country priorities, particularly infrastructure,'' Wolfowitz said.

`Less Ideology'

Sachs, 53, said he knows Zoellick from his time as deputy Secretary of State in 2005 and 2006, when the two worked on projects to combat malaria, a mosquito-transmitted disease the World Bank estimates kills about a million people a year, mostly in Africa.

``We're waiting to hear what his agenda is,'' Sachs said. ``The main thing is, less ideology, more practical, measurable results.''

Sachs urged Zoellick to redirect the World Bank's focus on corruption in aid-receiving nations -- a Wolfowitz initiative -- to providing practical solutions on hunger and poverty. In response, Wolfowitz said corruption increasingly is recognized as a barrier to poverty reduction.

Delivering aid has become more difficult in recent years, as the U.S.-led global war against terrorism overshadows efforts to eliminate diseases and hunger, Sachs said. China is taking over the leadership role on African development from the U.S., he said.

China Fills Void

China has pursued a strategy to broaden commercial ties with poor nations and is ``making a lot of investments'' in Africa, Sachs said. ``They're really, in a lot of ways, displacing our leadership,'' which is ``obsessed with the Persian Gulf,'' he said.

Sachs is a professor of health policy and management at Columbia University in New York and author of ``The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time.'' From 2002 to 2006 he was director of the United Nations Millennium Project, the primary goal of which is to dramatically reduce poverty and hunger around the globe by 2015.

That effort lost traction after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, Sachs said.

``We entered the new millennium with a lot of optimism and then quickly went to war, and that was a huge, huge distraction,'' he said. Aid efforts have suffered because ``we are spending recklessly on war and because the president of the United States talks about war 24/7 but he doesn't talk about peace,'' he said.

Guns Versus Butter

As a result, raising funds for poverty reduction has been a challenge in recent years, Sachs said. ``The United States spends maybe $4 billion every year for all of Africa'' and ``we're spending $150 billion a year on this war in Iraq,'' he said.

Sachs took issue with the claim by some economists who argue that billions of dollars in international aid money does little to relieve poverty and may even impede economic growth in countries that receive it.

``Just the opposite,'' Sachs said. In order to achieve economic growth in poor nations, ``you need roads, you need a port that functions, you need electricity 24/7 so that a factory can operate there. You need the epidemic diseases under control.''

Without endorsing any candidate, Sachs praised the poverty rhetoric of Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, as well as Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, all of whom are running for president.

``When Senator Barack Obama says that we need a new approach to foreign policy, one that is more geared toward diplomacy and problem solving than war, I have to applaud that,'' Sachs said.

Gates Foundation

Edwards ``is looking both at the poverty at home -- and we have serious problems in the United States -- and the poverty abroad,'' Sachs said. ``He's not pitting our poor against the world's poor.''

Brownback's interest in fighting malaria and the connection he's made between his faith and aid to the poor ``is the right way to help serve the world, it's very impressive,'' Sachs said.

Sachs called the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest charitable fund, a ``breakthrough organization.'' He said the organization's work with vaccines and medicines for the world's poor could prove to be ``world changing.'' He also lauded former President Bill Clinton's Global Initiative, launched in 2005 to combat poverty and other global problems.

To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Benjamin in Washington at mbenjamin2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 31, 2007 00:16 EDT

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