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Jim Yong Kim - a president of the World Bank who can only be good news for global health It would be good for global health if Jim Yong Kim became World Bank chief
(about 3 hours later)
Jim Yong Kim, nominated by President Obama to be the next president of the World Bank, may be something of an unknown quantity to many who heard the announcement, but I'm guessing that most people who have had anything to do with global health and particularly HIV and TB over the past decade will be celebrating.Jim Yong Kim, nominated by President Obama to be the next president of the World Bank, may be something of an unknown quantity to many who heard the announcement, but I'm guessing that most people who have had anything to do with global health and particularly HIV and TB over the past decade will be celebrating.
I first came across Jim Kim when he became director of the HIV department of the World Health Organisation in 2004. If that department had been at that point overshadowed by UNAIDS - an entire UN entity created to tackle a single disease - it was no longer.I first came across Jim Kim when he became director of the HIV department of the World Health Organisation in 2004. If that department had been at that point overshadowed by UNAIDS - an entire UN entity created to tackle a single disease - it was no longer.
It was Jim Kim who drove through the audacious plan to get three million people in poor countries with HIV on lifesaving antiretroviral drugs by the end of 2005. Morally and politically, the drugs needed to be rolled out in the developing world, but the logistics were always going to be really tough. Not many years before, it had been thought impossible to treat people with these very potent and very expensive drug combinations across sub-Saharan Africa. Kim had the drive to make it happen. He was also confident enough not to care that the target would not be met - I don't think he ever thought it would. He knew that setting such a target would put pressure on the creaky UN system to move. It took until 2007 to reach the three million, but progress has been steady since then and now 6.65 million people in low and middle-income countries are on treatment which keeps them alive.It was Jim Kim who drove through the audacious plan to get three million people in poor countries with HIV on lifesaving antiretroviral drugs by the end of 2005. Morally and politically, the drugs needed to be rolled out in the developing world, but the logistics were always going to be really tough. Not many years before, it had been thought impossible to treat people with these very potent and very expensive drug combinations across sub-Saharan Africa. Kim had the drive to make it happen. He was also confident enough not to care that the target would not be met - I don't think he ever thought it would. He knew that setting such a target would put pressure on the creaky UN system to move. It took until 2007 to reach the three million, but progress has been steady since then and now 6.65 million people in low and middle-income countries are on treatment which keeps them alive.
Kim could take a politically-dangerous stance because he wasn't politically dependent. With fellow doctors, including the great Paul Farmer, he started Partners in Health in 1987 - a radical project to get care and treatment for diseases including TB and Aids into poor communities by training local people. They started in Haiti but their influence has now been felt across the developing world.Kim could take a politically-dangerous stance because he wasn't politically dependent. With fellow doctors, including the great Paul Farmer, he started Partners in Health in 1987 - a radical project to get care and treatment for diseases including TB and Aids into poor communities by training local people. They started in Haiti but their influence has now been felt across the developing world.
Kim left WHO to head up Dartmouth College. I, for one, an glad he is willing to leave the pleasant lawns of academe to plunge back into the complex and messy world of the UN. They call him a technocrat, but technocrats get things done. The much criticised World Bank could become a lot more interesting.Kim left WHO to head up Dartmouth College. I, for one, an glad he is willing to leave the pleasant lawns of academe to plunge back into the complex and messy world of the UN. They call him a technocrat, but technocrats get things done. The much criticised World Bank could become a lot more interesting.