IEG Independent Evaluations & Annual Reviews

434 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2132

Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) publications assess what works, and what does not; how a client plans to run and maintain a project; and the lasting contribution of the World Bank Group to a country's overall development. The goals of evaluation are to learn from experience, to provide an objective basis for assessing the results of the World Bank Group's work, and to provide accountability in the achievement of its objectives. IEG superseded the former Operations Evaluation Department.

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World Bank Group Support to Demand-Side Energy Efficiency: An Independent Evaluation March 2, 2023

(Washington DC, 2023-03-14) World Bank ; Independent Evaluation Group

Improving energy efficiency—using less energy to do the same amount of work—has both supply-side and demand-side aspects. Improvements in energy efficiency are reductions in the energy required to maintain or improve energy services to households, businesses, and communities. Supply-side energy efficiency approaches target energy generation via grid infrastructure, utilities, and power producers. Demand-side energy efficiency (DSEE) focuses on the energy use of industries, commercial entities, and households. The Bank Group has committed to supporting DSEE which focuses on the energy use of industries, commercial entities, and households. DSEE is critical for energy savings and reducing greenhouse gases in line with the Paris Agreement and relevant sustainable development goals (SDGs) and increasingly for contributing to energy security. This evaluation focuses on the World Bank Group’s approaches to DSEE and opportunities to scale them up, and proposes four near-term actions the Bank Group should take: (i) Intensify DSEE support to middle-income countries (MICs) for decarbonization and wider socioeconomic benefits. (ii) Develop energy efficiency sector-specific approaches in a select group of lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) that seek productivity gains alongside or via DSEE, even if EE policy reforms are in early stages. (iii) Expand DSEE approaches by incorporating reduction of indirect emissions (Scope 3), including embodied and operational carbon, in DSEE project design. (iv) Exploit untapped DSEE opportunities and help clients develop innovative approaches that adapt digital and financial solutions from developed countries.
The World Bank Group’s Early Support to Addressing the COVID-19 Economic Response, April 2020 - June 2021: An Early-Stage Evaluation

(Washington, DC, 2023) World Bank ; Independent Evaluation Group

In the face of the global economic crisis caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the World Bank delivered the largest crisis response in its history. This evaluation assesses the Bank Group’s early response to the economic crises caused by COVID-19, and examines interventions over the 15 months from April 2020 through June 2021. The report considers two evaluation windows: the acute crisis phase (April 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020) and the incipient recovery phase (January 1, 2021 to June 30, 2021). The objective of identifying the two windows was to assess whether the Bank Group internalized learning from the first period of the crisis to address the challenges that were materializing in the (incipient) recovery phase. The evaluation assesses the relevance of the Bank Group’s interventions on three dimensions: the extent to which the Bank Group targeted its early response based on clients’ and sectors’ needs, the extent to which the Bank Group used timely diagnostics and lessons from past crises to inform its early response, and the extent to which the early response leveraged the Bank Group’s comparative advantages. The evaluation studies the quality of the Bank Group response on three dimensions: the extent to which the Bank Group early response influenced client strategies; the extent to which the Bank Group coordinated its early response among its constituent institutions and with development partners; and how well the Bank Group early response handled monitoring, safeguards, and governance. The evaluation offers two near-term recommendations to strengthen the role of the Bank Group as a crisis responder, which is now more critical than ever.
The World Bank’s Early Support to Addressing Coronavirus (COVID-19) Health and Social Response - An Early-Stage Evaluation

(Washington, DC, 2022-11-15) World Bank

This evaluation assesses the quality of the World Bank’s early response to the COVID-19 crisis and the initial steps toward recovery, focusing on the health and social response. It concentrates on the relief stage and support to restructure systems in the first 15 months of the pandemic (February 1, 2020, to April 30, 2021) in 106 countries. A parallel Independent Evaluation Group evaluation looks at the World Bank Group support to address the economic implications of the pandemic. To assess the quality of the response, the evaluation is guided by a theory of action that synthesizes evidence in three dimensions: relevance of support to the needs of countries; implementation, learning, and adjustment; and operational policy and partnerships to support smooth responses in countries. As the response is ongoing, the evaluation does not assess effectiveness but considers early results and pathways that are expected to lead to outcomes. The findings from the evaluation inform four recommendations for ensuring stronger future preparedness: (i) Use the World Bank’s crisis recovery efforts to strengthen the resilience of essential health and education. (ii) Apply a gender equality lens to health and social crisis response actions across sectors. (iii) Help countries strengthen regional cooperation and crisis response capacities for public health preparedness. (iv) Build on the COVID-19 experience to strengthen the World Bank’s internal crisis preparedness so that it has the tools and procedures ready to respond in future emergencies.
Evaluation Insight Note: Transport Decarbonization

(Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank

Transport is a priority action area under the World Bank’s Climate Change Action Plan. Climate action in the transport sector is essential as the sector emits approximately 24 percent of the global total of energy-related carbon emissions and, without aggressive measures, the World Bank expects emissions from transport to grow 60 percent by 2050. This EIN was guided by the overall question: How has the World Bank been approaching transport decarbonization To answer this question, the note uses existing evidence from the self-evaluation system of the World Bank, including Implementation Completion and Results Reports prepared by the project teams and the associated Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) validations, relevant information from other project documents, literature from policy and academic sources, advisory services and analytics, country strategies, and existing IEG evaluations. This systematic review provided the basis for four main insights into the current patterns of World Bank work on transport decarbonization and the identification of a range of potential actions to exploit opportunities for decarbonization: (i) The World Bank has steadily increased the number of projects with decarbonization content, especially in low income countries, and has recently put together a strong knowledge base on transport decarbonization. (ii) Nevertheless, transport decarbonization in World Bank lending remains timid against the needed contributions to the Climate Change Action Plan. (iii) Country-specific decarbonization diagnostics and analytical work has been limited, and transport decarbonization seldom makes it onto the World Bank’s strategic country agenda. (iv) The World Bank has rarely measured transport decarbonization directly.
2022 Independent Evaluation Group Validation of the Management Action Record

(Washington, DC, 2022-10-05) World Bank

This document is Independent Evaluation Group’s (IEG) validation of the report entitled “Enhancing evidence-based learning for outcomes through the Management Action Record: A World Bank Group Management Report on Implementation of IEG Recommendations”. The Management Action Record (MAR) system supports accountability and learning in the follow-up of IEG evaluation recommendations by enabling meaningful tracking, self-assessment, and validation of Bank Group management’s implementation of IEG recommendations. The validation document covers IEG’s synthesis of progress toward achieving IEG evaluations’ intended outcomes and its assessment of the approach and evidence in management’s MAR report.
Tanzania Country Program Evaluation: Approach Paper

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-10-03) Independent Evaluation Group

The Country Program Evaluation (CPE) for Tanzania assesses the World Bank Group’s effectiveness and relevance in its work to help Tanzania address its key development challenges. The CPE will encompass two Bank Group strategy periods covering fiscal years (FY)12–16 and FY18–22. The evaluation aims to inform the next Bank Group Country Partnership Framework for Tanzania.
Toward Productive, Inclusive, and Sustainable Farms and Agribusiness Firms: An Evaluation of the World Bank Group’s Support for the Development of Agrifood Economies (2010–20)

(Washington, DC, 2022-08-29) World Bank

The purpose of the evaluation is to assess how relevant and effective the World Bank Group has been in its support for agrifood system development (AFSD) —that is, in developing more productive, inclusive, and sustainable farms and agribusiness firms. The evaluation finds that the Bank Group’s interventions (FY 2010–20) were broadly relevant, although gaps remain in scaling up and better targeting support to countries that need it the most. Bank Group interventions were also effective overall in improving productivity, inclusion, and sustainability, but less so in LICs, particularly in West and Central Africa. World Bank interventions that focused on supporting production were less successful than interventions that combined production and market approaches. World Bank support for improving productivity was insufficiently diversified toward higher-value products that offer multiple benefits. IFC agribusiness investments faced challenges meeting environmental and social (E&S) standards, especially in LICs. IEG offers three recommendations to enhance Bank Group support for AFSD. (i) To enhance its effectiveness in developing agrifood systems, the World Bank Group’s efforts to support production technologies should be complemented by efforts to improve market access, especially in LICs and in countries at the traditional stage of agrifood system development. These can be pursued through synergies in Bank Group interventions or with partners; (ii) To achieve more sustainable agrifood systems, where conditions permit, the World Bank Group should support production diversification to meet the growing demand for undersupplied high-value-added, nutritious products while ensuring that smallholder farmers and SMEs benefit from the diversification; and (iii) To enhance the contribution of IFC support for AFSD, IFC should pilot and adopt more effective ways to support clients to better meet E&S Performance Standards, especially in LICs.
Reducing Disaster Risks from Natural Hazards: An Evaluation of the World Bank’s Support, Fiscal Years 2010–20

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-08-24) Independent Evaluation Group

Disasters caused by natural hazards are increasingly threatening the lives and livelihoods of the world’s poor and disaster-vulnerable populations. Climate change is further exacerbating the negative impacts of disasters caused by natural hazards. Investing in disaster risk reduction (DRR) has strong economic and social benefits and is essential for achieving climate change adaptation. IEG's evaluation shows that the World Bank is successfully supporting clients to increasingly take up DRR actions through strategic and comprehensive country engagement. The World Bank has developed an extensive portfolio of DRR activities, tripling its support over FY10-20. It focuses its DRR work on countries with the most serious natural hazards, uses synergistic pillars of DRR engagement, and increasingly mainstreams DRR into sector operations. Support for DRR in IDA, small island developing states, and IDA-FCV countries has been comprehensive. The Bank has also shifted from post-disaster response toward pre-disaster risk reduction. The Bank has shown that it is able to overcome political and financial constraints to DRR client uptake by engaging the right decision makers using rigorous evidence and by building on disaster reconstruction efforts. Analytical work that quantified risks, assessed costs and benefits and communicates impacts has highly influenced DRR uptake. However, there are gaps in coverage for some regions, sectors, and hazards that require attention. There are DRR coverage gaps in Europe and Central Asia and the Middle East and North Africa for all serious hazards. Also, while the World Bank is conducting analytical work on the needs of disaster vulnerable groups, there has been slow progress on incorporating their needs into operations. There are also missed opportunities to use conflict-sensitive approaches to mitigate conflict risks and pursue peace-building. Also, the Bank’s frequent inability to demonstrate the effects of its DRR activities on reduced exposure and vulnerability has consequences on its ability to make a development case for risk reduction. Most DRR operations are not providing sufficient information to establish the level of DRR being achieved, inhibiting an understanding of how DRR contributes to development impacts, such as reduced economic loss and mortality. IEG offers the World Bank four recommendations to improve their performance on disaster risk reduction: (i) Incorporate DRR activities in regions and sectors and for hazards that exhibit significant coverage gaps. (ii) Identify and measure the effects of DRR activities on exposure and vulnerability to strengthen the development case for clients facing serious disaster risks. (iii) Integrate the needs of populations disproportionately vulnerable to disasters caused by natural hazards into DRR project targeting and design, implementation, and results reporting. (iv) In countries affected by serious natural hazards and fragility and conflict risks, identify and assess the ways in which hazards and conflict interrelate and use this to inform country engagement and project design.
Poverty Mapping: Innovative Approaches to Creating Poverty Maps with New Data Sources

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-08) Ziuli, Virginia ; Meckler, Jessica ; Hernández Licona, Gonzalo ; Vaessen, Jozef

Geographically disaggregated poverty data are vital for better understanding development issues and ensuring development efforts are directed to the places where they are most needed. Poverty has traditionally been measured by data on consumption, income, or assets. However, recent advances in computing power and the emergence of new methods has made it increasingly feasible to produce reliable, cost-effective, and timely poverty maps by extracting features from novel data sources such as satellite imagery, call detail records, and internet connectivity indicators. This paper explores the methodological implications of using both traditional and novel data sources to generate poverty maps. Specifically, it examines the applications of (i) survey and census data; (ii) Global System for Mobile Communications, smartphone, and Wi-Fi indicators; (iii) call detail records; (iv) daytime and nighttime remote sensing imagery; and (v) the Survey of Well-being via Instant and Frequent Tracking for poverty mapping. Each section provides a brief overview of the data requirements, methodology, and applicability considerations of the data source under consideration. In addition, the paper discusses the usefulness and limitations of each approach in the field of evaluation, providing concrete examples of poverty maps created from each of the listed data sources.
Arab Republic of Egypt - Integrated Irrigation Improvement and Management Project and Farm-Level Irrigation Modernization Project: Project Performance Assessment Report

(Washington, DC, 2022-07-05) World Bank

Ratings for the Integrated Irrigation Improvement and Management Project are as follows: Outcome was moderately satisfactory, Risk to development outcome was modest, Bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and Borrow performance was moderately satisfactory. Ratings for the Farm-Level Irrigation Modernization Project are as follows: Outcome was moderately satisfactory, Risk to development outcome was modest, and Bank performance was moderately satisfactory. This assessment offers the following lessons: (i) In irrigation systems, such as the Nile Delta’s, that are organized along a hierarchical canal network, irrigation improvement efforts can realize greater impact by applying a systematic approach to rehabilitation, as was done through these two projects, as opposed to addressing different levels of the canal system in isolation. (ii) Efficient implementation of irrigation improvement works requires coordinating and sequencing activities that fall under the mandate of many different entities, which are often beyond the authority of the project implementing agency. (iii) Effecting behavior changes in on-farm water use, agronomic practices, and diversification to higher-value crops requires support beyond improvements to the irrigation water delivery system. (iv) Successfully reforming the institutions that manage irrigation and drainage services, both water users and government agencies, requires greater attention to incentives for collaboration. (v) In a context such as the Nile Delta, where overall efficiency of the irrigation system is already high, there is little scope for addressing water savings at the basin level through infrastructure improvement.