Jessica Einhorn

Critics regularly fault the World Bank for overlooking issues such as the environment and the role of civil society as it pursues its development agenda. In fact, the bank has been adding tasks to its mandate for years, from Balkan reconstruction to education for girls in Muslim countries to the fight against AIDS. Its mission has now grown so complex that it has become unwieldy. To make the bank more effective, the countries that own it-its shareholders-must streamline its many functions and even devolve certain tasks to other institutions. The bank remains a great organization with a talented staff and a compassionate vision, but it must be prepared to move back to basics and then on to the modern era.