Program Overview

• Hosts: Ray Suarez, Garrick Utley, and Margaret Warner
• Original Airdate: Sep 2007

The World Bank has moved from funding massive public works programs to creating education, health and agriculture programs for developing nations. Despite increasing funding to Asia, Africa and Latin America, the World Bank faces many challenges on producing real long-term results.

The World Bank has many critics including former World Bank economist, Ashraf Ghani. Ray Suarez explores the role of the World Bank and the challenges it faces today in segment one.

Go through history in this archival tour of World Bank presidents of past with Garrick Utley and Devesh Kapur, associate professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, in segment two.

In segment three, Margaret Warner looks back at the World Bank’s role in promoting structural adjustment and market reforms in Latin America in the 1980s.

In segment four, Ray Suarez takes a look at what worked in Tanzania, the World Bank’s largest development partners.

Guests on this program include:

Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development

Ashraf Ghani, former Afghan finance minister

François Bourguignon, chief economist of the World Bank

William Easterly, professor of economics at New York University.

Devesh Kapur, associate professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania

Ambassador David Mulford, former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury for international affairs

Shahid Husain, former vice president for Latin American Affairs at the Bank

Moises Naim, former Venezuelan minister of trade and industry

John Page, chief economist for the Africa region at the World Bank

George Ayittey, economist in residence at American University

Andrew Mwenda, political editor of Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper