If the appointment of Jim Kim is to augur even a modicum of reform at the World Bank, then perhaps it is time to confront one of the most sensitive and overlooked issues that has long undermined institutional effectiveness and credibility: racial inequality.The Washington-based Government Accountability Project reported in 2009 that, of more than 1000 American World Bank staff of professional grade, four were African-American.1 The issue of racial inequality was first brought to public attention by the Washington Post in 1978,2 and several internal studies undertaken since 1996 have looked at race discrimination and under-representation of black employees in the higher levels of the organisation.
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