Members of the Freedom from Debt Coalition in Manila march to the local headquarters of the World Bank to protest Paul Wolfowitz's first day as head of the organisation. Photograph: Luis Liwanag/AFP/Getty Images
Paul Wolfowitz officially takes over as president of the World Bank today. In the past few days, the former US secretary of defence has been prowling the corridors of the world's leading development bank, shaking hands and introducing himself to staff.
The charm offensive has already won over some of his critics, but others remain unconvinced.
"I was pleasantly surprised," said Mohammad Akhter, chief executive officer of InterAction, an alliance of 160 US-based development and humanitarian non-profit organisations, who met Mr Wolfowitz on Friday. "The World Bank is in good hands."
On the other hand, over 300 civil society groups from 62 countries sent him a letter today protesting the World Bank's "destructive policies" as well as the lack of democracy and accountability that allowed him to become its president.
Mr Wolfowitz's opponents cannot forgive the role he played as a leading architect of the Iraq war, a venture that showed a woeful lack of foresight for winning the peace after Saddam Hussein was bundled out of power.
There are also fears that Mr Wolfowitz will carry on with the Bank's policy of opening up markets in developing countries for multinationals, although it is too early to tell whether he is a privatisation zealot.
Developing countries are likely to take a more pragmatic view of Mr Wolfowitz than his NGO critics. At the very least they know they will be dealing with someone with genuine clout within the administration. They will want to see whether Mr Wolfowitz backs up what he has said on giving developing countries more of a say in the Bank's policy-making.
Mr Wolfowitz has said he wants to ensure that developing countries that had complained to him about feeling alienated were brought into the decision-making of the bank, but he has stopped short of saying whether he would give them a bigger role through management changes.
It's early days yet, but Mr Wolfowitz is saying all the right things. He told reporters yesterday: "I would find nothing more satisfying than, at the end of my tenure at this institution, to feel that we have played a part in what hopefully could be a period when Africa went from a continent of despair to a continent of hope."
