IEG Fast Track Brief
32 items available
Permanent URI for this collection
Fast Track Briefs inform the World Bank Group (WBG) managers and staff about new evaluation findings and recommendations.
Items in this collection
1 - 5 of 5
-
Publication
Poverty Reduction Support Credits : An Evaluation of World Bank Support
(Washington, DC, 2009-11)Poverty Reduction Support Credits (PRSCs) were intended to help countries implement comprehensive, country-owned development strategies to promote growth, improve social conditions, and reduce poverty. PRSCs were intended to ease conditionality, make annual flows to recipient countries predictable and integrated with their budgets, strengthen domestic budget processes, provide a framework for donor harmonization, and focus on achieving results. In terms of process, PRSCs have worked well. Findings show that they incorporated many envisaged changes in design and implementation. These include stronger country ownership, eased conditionality, and a shift of focus towards public sector management and pro-poor service delivery. PRSCs balanced tensions between predictability and program credibility. Although PRSCs differed from preceding adjustment loans, development policy lending today has converged towards a similar design. PRSCs today are subject to the same guidelines as other Development Policy Loans (DPLs). Differences remain in practice in terms of the association with PRSPs, broad scope, programmatic nature, and country performance. The evaluation recommends either that PRSCs be phased out as a separate brand name or that these differences be clearly spelled out. -
Publication
The World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment — An Evaluation
(Washington, DC, 2009-06)The World Bank's Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) assess the conduciveness of a country's policy and institutional framework to poverty reduction, sustainable growth, and the effective use of development assistance. It plays an important role in the country performance ratings that have been used for allocating resources from the International Development Association (IDA) to eligible countries since 1980. This evaluation takes the premise that beyond informing IDA allocation, the CPIA is useful as a broad indicator of development effectiveness. It assesses the relevance of the content of the CPIA through a review of the economics literature. It also assesses the reliability of CPIA ratings in two ways-through comparing CPIA ratings with similar indicators, and through reviewing the CPIA ratings generation process. Based on these assessments, the evaluation derives recommendations for enhancing the CPIA. -
Publication
Review of IDA Internal Controls : An Evaluation of Management’s Assessment and the IAD Review
(Washington, DC, 2009-01)International Development Association (IDA) stakeholders want to be assured that IDA complies with its articles and policies, and that the funds it provides for development purposes are used as intended and have measurable results. A key purpose of IDA's control system is to provide such assurance. Hence, the Board of Executive Directors requested a full evaluation of the system by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), through an assessment by IDA management and a review by the Internal Audit Department. The evaluation is the first of its kind not only for the Bank but also for all international financial organizations. In this sense the Bank and IDA have taken an important lead in assessment of internal controls. The analysis includes several recommendations. First, controls over possible fraud and corruption in IDA operations should be addressed on a broad front, starting with risk management processes and country assistance strategies, and including the development and deployment of specific additional instruments directed at fraud and corruption issues at the level of programs and projects. Second, the implementation of remedies for the other control deficiencies should be closely monitored. Management has recognized the need for such remedies, and many are contained in the Governance and Anti-corruption (GAC) program currently being implemented (including some still under preparation). These remedies appear in both scope and content to address the key issues, and they correspond well to those suggested by IEG in this report. However, they are not yet sufficiently operative to be tested and, if effective, thereby lessen the materiality of the controls weaknesses identified. IEG thus believes it would be premature to conclude that fraud and corruption (F&C) risks have been successfully resolved under the current IDA controls framework. -
Publication
An Evaluation of Bank Support for Decentralization in Client Countries
(Washington, DC, 2008-08)Developing countries have decentralized functions and responsibilities for service delivery to lower levels of government at an increasing pace in recent years. The main reasons for such reforms are often political, but governments adopt them also as a way to improve service delivery and local governance. Typically, after the political decision is made, a country will turn to its development partners including the World Bank for support in implementing the new policies and achieving their development objectives. Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) assessed the effectiveness of Bank support for decentralization between FY90 and FY07 in 20 countries, seeking to inform the design and implementation of future support. Given the difficulties of measuring the results of decentralization, the evaluation used intermediate outcome indicators such as strengthened legal and regulatory frameworks for intergovernmental relations, improved administrative capacity, and increased accountability of sub-national governments and functionaries to higher levels of government and to local citizens to assess the results of Bank support in these 20 cases. To examine potential lessons at a sectoral level, the evaluation also assessed whether Bank support for decentralization improved intermediate outcomes for service delivery in the education sector in 6 of the 20 countries. -
Publication
Georgia Country Assistance Evaluation, 1993-2007
(Washington, DC, 2008-06)Georgia's development path was highly uneven after the country gained independence in 1991. Civil war, secessionist movements, and economic crises resulted in a sharp and protracted fall in output and hyperinflation in the immediate post-independence years. In 1994-96 the country implemented a successful stabilization program, reining in hyperinflation and restoring growth. But in subsequent years the government failed to overcome problems arising notably from economic mismanagement and widespread corruption, leading to poor public services, a deepening energy crisis, and political and economic uncertainty. After the November 2003 raised revolution, the new government executed an ambitious reform program that quickly produced results: rapid economic growth, improved governance, and better living conditions. The World Bank's experience in Georgia closely followed the successes and failures of the country's development. Three distinct sub-periods can be identified, based on the timing of the Bank's country strategies, changes in government policy course, and exogenous factors: 1994-97, 1998-2003, and 2004-07. With Georgia now on the path to international Development Association (IDA) graduation and becoming eligible for International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) borrowing, the challenge for the Bank is to sustain a strong partnership with an emerging middle-income country.