World Bank President Jim Yong Kim’s shake-up of the World Bank’s organizational structure has elicited a wide range of emotions: hope, fear, confusion, doubt, optimism, inspiration.
Budget cuts, projected staff layoffs and the introduction of 14 new “Global Practices” had many inside and outside the institution expressing concern about the fate of bank-led development initiatives, which they feared might be sidelined or diminished as a new structure took hold.
Eight months after the most significant reforms took effect, bank staffers and development partners are beginning to take stock of what effect the changes have had on some of those prized programs.