News Investigators/ World Bank Group President, Ajay Banga, has announced the appointment of Nobel laureate, Michael Kremer, as the institution’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President for Development Economics.
Banga made the announcement in a statement issued by the World Bank Online Media Centre on Wednesday.
According to the statement Kremer, a renowned development economist, will lead the World Bank Group’s research, data and analytical agenda.
“Kremer is known for tackling real world problems through innovative solutions grounded in rigorous research.
“He is also known for translating his findings into programmes that have reached hundreds of millions of people, from expanding vaccines access and school health programmes to supporting smallholder farmers.
“I am pleased to welcome him to the World Bank Group,” Banga said.
According to him. Kremer joins the group at a time when the world needs bold solutions to its most urgent development challenges.
“This includes creating jobs that meet the aspirations of more than 1.2 billion young people reaching working age in the coming decade.
“Kremer has spent his career, not just identifying what works in development but proving it at scale and that is exactly the kind of thinking we need.,” he said.
Banga said the World Bank Group had, in recent years, sought to strengthen the link between knowledge and development impact.
He said that the groupp did that by ensuring that research and data inform policies, investments, partnerships and scalable solutions across the public and private sectors.
Meanwhile, Kremer said the World Bank Group had significant capacity to develop and test innovative solutions to development challenges and the operational reach to scale them up and improve people’s lives.
According to him, the challenges ahead are enormous, including creating jobs at scale, unlocking the private capital needed to fund development, and ensuring that people have the health, education, and other services they need to thrive.
“At the same time, new technologies create huge opportunities to boost growth and human well-being.
“Data, evidence, and research can help firms and governments navigate both the challenges and opportunities,” he said.
Kremer said he was looking forward to working with staff across the World Bank Group and partners around the world.
With a PhD in Economics from Harvard University, Kremer is currently Director of the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago, where he is a University Professor.
He has conducted research in areas including economic growth, technological change and development economics.
In 2019, Kremer jointly received the Nobel Prize in Economics with Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo for their research on “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”.
Their research used randomised controlled trials to generate reliable knowledge and identity, teetevidence on development interventions and identify, test and scale practical solutions.
His current research focuses on innovation in education, health, water, finance and agriculture in developing countries.
Together with Rachel Glennerster, he proposed the use of Advance Market Commitments (AMCs) for vaccines and helped launch a 1.5-billion-dollar AMC for a pneumococcal vaccine with Gavi and the World Bank Group.
Vaccines purchased through the AMCs have reached 60 developing countries, addressing a major cause of infant mortality.
His research on deworming has also informed government programmes in Africa and South Asia, with two billion deworming treatments provided to children since 2014.
His work on digital agriculture and artificial intelligence-based agricultural weather forecasting has informed government programmes reaching more than 50 million people in Africa and South Asia.
Kremer also co-founded Precision Development, an initiative that uses digital technology to improve productivity and incomes among smallholder farmers.
He was also a co-founder of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Development Innovation Ventures, which has invested in more than 300 innovations reaching no fewer than 200 million people.
Among his honours, Kremer is a MacArthur Fellow, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He is also a Presidential Faculty Fellow, co-founder of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development and a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Before joining the University of Chicago, Kremer served as the Gates Professor of Developing Societies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University.
His appointment as World Bank Group Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President for Development Economics takes effect on Oct. 1.
NAN