PREM Notes
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This note series is intended to summarize good practices and key policy findings on poverty reduction and economic management (PREM) topics.
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Publication
Lessons from Large Adjustment Loans
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1999-08)This note presents the lessons from the assessments that are likely to be most useful to country directors, and task teams preparing new adjustment operations. The five adjustment loans (two in Argentina, and one each in Korea, Malaysia, and Russia) show that applying basic lessons is not always straightforward, however, and, sometimes involves making tradeoffs among Bank objectives. It is stipulated policy objectives are more likely to be achieved, if there is substantial borrower ownership. To this end, support for new policies should be established, towards generating broad political ownership, including engaging key players in incoming administrations, to help build ownership of reforms. Moreover, combined, the Bank's country knowledge and global expertise, can generate quality operations, that forge local partnerships, draws on prior experience, and maintains a minimum knowledge base. This is to say, setting priorities, and sequencing reforms should be carefully included during the design phase, with particular attention to avoid excessively broad conditionality, which may reduce the probability of real progress on key reforms. -
Publication
Assessing Borrower Ownership Using Reform Readiness Analysis
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1999-06)The succesful selection and design of Bank lending operations involving policy reforms depends on the World Bank's capacity to assess borrower ownership. The Bank must know whether there is sufficient ownership to justify lending and, if not, how to work with the government to build broader ownership as a prerequisite for lending. This Note surveys the tools that the Bank has typically used to assess borrower ownership, recommends a promising new assessment instrument called reform readiness analysis, and describes how to use this new instrument. The Note also discusses how the Bank might contribute to building ownership.