World Bank chooses Jim Yong Kim as president – The World Bank selected Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College and an expert in public health, as its next president on Monday. Kim said that he would “seek a new alignment of the World Bank Group . . . [that] amplifies the voices of developing countries and draws on the expertise and experience of the people we serve.” Kim has previously been a director of the World Health Organization’s department of HIV/AIDS and is a co-founder of the nonprofit Partners in Health. (Los Angeles Times, Don Lee)
Donors, gov’t failing to reform Congo army – International and Congolese NGOs reported Monday that “failure to reform Democratic Republic of Congo’s large and ill-disciplined army has kept much of the civilian population in poverty and insecurity despite billions of dollars of foreign aid.” Due to corrupt networks within the security services, over $14 billion of international aid over the last 5 years has had “little impact on the average Congolese citizen.” (Retuers, Jonny Hogg)
FAO seeks aid for South Sudanese returnees – Thousands of people are expected to return to South Sudan in the coming months, as 700,000 South Sudanese currently living in Sudan must return to South Sudan by April. The Food and Agriculture Organization has said that its current funds are “insufficient to provide agriculture support to the expected returnees,” and has appealed for at least $18 million to roll out innovative interventions to take advantage of South Sudan’s second planting season later this year.” (Devex, Ivy Mungcal)
Nigeria Tested by Rapid Rise in Population – In a quarter-century, Nigeria will be home to approximately 300 million people – “a population about as big as that of the present-day United States – will live in a country roughly the size of Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.” Peter Ogunjuyibge, a demographer from Nigeria, explained that “if you don’t take care of population, schools can’t cope, hospitals can’t cope, there’s not enough hosing – there’s nothing you can do to have economic development.” (NYTimes, Elisabeth Rosenthal)
