The simple truth is that we do not need a public-sector bank at all for the problems of the poorest countries. We need a World Development Agency that would use grant funding to help spur technological solutions to the problems of the poor, and would provide grants to deliver urgently needed healthcare and education. This money should be supplemented by substantial new grants and capital contributions by donor governments. Increased funding is also urgently needed by specialist agencies such as the World Health Organisation. The bank lending operations of the Bank could be spun off, indeed privatised.
Globalisation underpinned by global ethics is the best hope for the poor.
An IMF focused on global financial markets and a World Development Agency devoted to the poorest peoples could yet make a valuable contribution to the world. Neither is yet on offer in Prague. The writer is director of the centre for international development at Harvard University.