IEG Fast Track Brief

32 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9411

Fast Track Briefs inform the World Bank Group (WBG) managers and staff about new evaluation findings and recommendations.

Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

Poverty Reduction Support Credits : An Evaluation of World Bank Support

(Washington, DC, 2009-11) World Bank

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.
Annual Review of Development Effectiveness 2009 : Achieving Sustainable Development

(Washington, DC, 2009-07) World Bank

The 2008 World Bank project performance data shows improvement in achieving development outcomes, allaying concerns that the weakened 2007 performance could signal a new downward trend. The decline in performance in 2007 was modest, and it has rebounded in 2008. Bank performance is rated on a six-point scale, from highly satisfactory to highly unsatisfactory. The percentage of satisfactory projects increased in 2008, continuing a steady upward trend over the past 15 years. Analysis of the dates of the major turnarounds in project performance suggests that a combination of better Bank sector policies and improved country circumstances outside of Bank control may explain much of the turnaround, rather than internal administrative reforms at the Bank, although the latter may have facilitated improvement already underway. The 2009 Management Action Record (MAR) tracks Bank adoption of recent Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) recommendations and shows that adoption levels are declining. IEG is currently examining ways to improve the MAR to create a more effective product for tracking implementation of recommendations and identify reasons for the trend decline. Although part of this may be attributed to the shifting nature of development assistance, not all of it is. An assessment of the use of cost-benefit tools in environmental projects largely confirms this conclusion. This issue will be taken up in greater detail in an IEG special report in FY2010.
The World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment — An Evaluation

(Washington, DC, 2009-06) World Bank

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.
Independent Evaluation of IFC’s Development Results 2009 : Knowledge for Private Sector Development

(Washington, DC, 2009-05) World Bank

The independent evaluation of International Finance Corporation's (IFC's) development results 2009 assesses the development outcomes and additionality (unique role and contribution) of IFC interventions. It analyzes factors driving results, and reviews performance patterns on a thematic topic. This year's thematic is IFC's Advisory Services (AS), knowledge services that IFC provides to either private companies or governments in support of private sector development. To enhance development impact, the report recommends that IFC: i) effectively manage the tension between protecting the portfolio and responding to opportunities during crisis; ii) set out an overall strategy for IFC advisory services, addressing the need for a clear vision and business framework and more closely linked with IFC's global corporate strategy; iii) pursue more programmatic AS interventions; iv) improve execution of the AS pricing policy; and v) strengthen AS performance measurement and internal knowledge management.
Climate Change and the World Bank Group - Phase I : An Evaluation of World Bank Win-Win Energy Policy Reforms

(Washington, DC, 2008-08) World Bank

The first of a series on climate change, this evaluation assesses International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA) experience with key win-win policies in the energy sector. It focuses on energy price reform and policies for energy efficiency, both of which offer potentially large gains at the country level together with significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The next phase will look at the project experience of the Bank (including the carbon funds) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in promoting technologies for renewable energy and energy efficiency. Transport and forestry issues will also be evaluated. The record levels of energy prices in 2008, although they have been relaxed, provide an impetus for clients to seek more sustainable and price-resilient growth paths. The Bank can proactively help interested clients to assess the domestic benefits of price reform and efficiency policies, explore design options, and finance their implementation. This will require a reorientation of the Bank's internal incentives, and adoption of a systems approach to energy and climate. These efforts will complement the crucial steps developed countries must take to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions and to provide financial and technical help for mitigation by developing countries, consistent with United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) commitments and the Bali action plan.