IEG Fast Track Brief

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

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 18
  • Publication
    Mozambique Country Program Evaluation, 2001-08
    (Washington, DC, 2010-05) World Bank
    During the period FY01-08, the World Bank was Mozambique's largest development partner, providing over $1.3 billion in International Development Association (IDA) funds. The Bank's strategy, which was aligned with and sought to support the government's poverty reduction strategy, focused on three pillars: economic growth, including macroeconomic management, financial and private sector development, rural development, and infrastructure; poverty reduction and human development; and governance. The evaluation finds that the Bank's strategy for Mozambique and its program were relevant to the country's development needs. The Bank's program was generally aligned with those of other development partners that provide general budget support, especially after FY05. Harmonization of procedures with other development partners also progressed, although there is scope for further improvement. Going forward, Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) recommends that the Bank help Mozambique sustain high growth and re-shape its pattern to make additional gains in poverty reduction; give priority in analytic work to infrastructure, agricultural productivity, education quality, and HIV/AIDS; and support improvements in the efficiency of public expenditures.
  • Publication
    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.
  • Publication
    World Bank Engagement at the State Level : The Cases of Brazil, India, Nigeria and Russia
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-09) World Bank
    Beginning in the late 1990s, the World Bank significantly expanded its engagement at the state level in Brazil, India, Nigeria, and Russia. This pilot cross-country study reviews the selected cases of World Bank's lending and analytic work at the state level in those four large federated countries. In each case, state governments were the Bank's principal development partners. The study looks at the evolution of the four country strategies and the Bank's mode of engagement at the state level, in order to draw lessons from that experience both for the Bank and for its federal and state partners. State-level engagement posed several strategic and operational questions, among them which states to engage, the scope of engagement, and the modalities of engagement. The Bank set out its approach to selecting states in country strategy documents. The findings are worth highlighting. First, the study confirms the desirability of continued selective Bank lending in a few states. However, the poverty impact of those interventions could be enhanced by balancing states' propensity to reform and the concentration of poverty within them, giving greater weight to the needs of poorest states. Second, continued focus on public finance management as the core area appears sound, irrespective of whether engagement is confined to this area or serves as an entry point for broader engagement. And third, there is considerable scope for greater impact from analytic work, knowledge transfer, and expanded knowledge sharing not so much concepts and theories as practical experience of what works and what does not.
  • Publication
    Bangladesh Country Assistance Evaluation, 2001-08
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-07) World Bank
    Bangladesh is among the World Bank's largest International Development Association (IDA) eligible borrowers, with a country portfolio of 21 active projects and net commitment of $1.9 billion as of FY08. The Bank's strategy has been to support government efforts to improve governance as a cross-cutting goal, while also improving the investment climate and empowering the poor. IDA's strategy for Bangladesh and its program during the period 2001-08 were relevant to the country's development needs, including improving governance and promoting structural reforms in order to consolidate gains in macroeconomic performance, exports, education, and health, and improve the prospects for successful future development. Bank assistance during the FY01-08 period was delivered under the FY01 and FY06 Country Assistance Strategies (CASs) and the FY03 CAS progress report. These largely reflected the Bank's search for more effective support for Bangladesh's efforts to sustain and enhance development, even as success in increasing exports and workers' remittances reduced the country's dependence on foreign assistance, and as awareness increased that governance issues needed to be addressed more broadly.
  • Publication
    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.
  • Publication
    How Effective Have Poverty and Social Impact Analyses Been?
    (Washington, DC, 2009-06) World Bank
    The Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) approach, introduced by the World Bank in FY02, aimed to help the Bank and its client countries anticipate and address the possible consequences of proposed policy reforms, especially on the poor and vulnerable, and to contribute to country capacity for policy analysis. According to the Bank, by FY07 it had undertaken 156 PSIAs in 75 countries and 14 sectors. Total Bank and other donor support to PSIAs over FY04-06 was $15 million. Development literature has emphasized the importance of understanding the institutional and political constraints to development, building domestic ownership of policy reforms, and assessing the distributional impacts of policy actions. The PSIA approach has correctly emphasized these aspects. The Bank has produced a substantial body of guidance on how to address these aspects, and that guidance has been refined over time to incorporate lessons learned. Development literature has emphasized the importance of understanding the institutional and political constraints to development, building domestic ownership of policy reforms, and assessing the distributional impacts of policy actions. The PSIA approach has correctly emphasized these aspects. The Bank has produced a substantial body of guidance on how to address these aspects, and that guidance has been refined over time to incorporate lessons learned.
  • Publication
    Nepal Country Assistance Evaluation, 2003–08
    (Washington, DC, 2009-05) World Bank
    The FY03-08 evaluation period was one of tumultuous political turmoil, conflict, and dramatic change in Nepal; today, prospects for sustainable peace are brighter, though still fragile. In such difficult and unpredictable conditions, formulating and implementing an effective development assistance strategy and programs were great challenges for development partners, including the Bank. To its credit, the Bank managed to remain constructively engaged in Nepal despite a challenging political and security context and has achieved some significant results on the ground. Nevertheless, the Bank's strategy was poorly adapted to the country's conflict situation and political instability, and until recently (FY08) underwent little adjustment in response to the rapidly-evolving conditions on the ground. Looking forward, Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) recommends that International Development Association (IDA) introduce greater realism into its strategy and program design and keep these flexible against a backdrop of a clear long-term vision, applying frequent course corrections in response to changing circumstances and consulting widely with national stakeholders and development partners. Other than through its existing portfolio of two hydropower projects, International Finance Corporation (IFC) did not make a significant contribution to Nepal's development over most of the review period. IFC's gradual re-engagement beginning in 2006 was successful, resulting in two Global Trade Finance Program (GTFP) investments, an investment in a domestic airline in 2008, a pipeline of investment projects in the financial sector, and a constructive dialogue with the government on the business climate.
  • Publication
    Uganda - Country Assistance Evaluation, 2001-07
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-04) World Bank
    The World Bank (WB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) programs in Uganda over 2001-07 were delivered under the FY01-03 the WB Country Assistance Strategy, the 2002-04 AfDB Country Strategy Paper, and the Uganda Joint Assistance Strategy. These strategies focused on promoting governance, growth, and human development, and were pursued through a net commitment of $2.1 billion by the International Development Association (FY01-07) and $732 million equivalent (2002-07) by the African Development Fund. The World Bank's assistance strategies showed strong client orientation and were aligned with Uganda's poverty reduction strategy. The programs were substantially effective in decentralization, public sector reform, growth and economic transformation, education, and water and sanitation. More could have been done to help counter the perception of increasing corruption, improve power supply, reduce transport costs, enhance agricultural productivity, and help with family planning and reproductive health. The AfDB's assistance was also relevant and aligned with the government's development goals. Its support substantially achieved its objectives for decentralization, public sector finance, growth and economic transformation, improved competitiveness, agriculture, and water and sanitation, as well as education and health. There were some shortcomings in the assistance provided for power and roads and in reducing corruption. The International Finance Corporation's (IFC's) main contribution has been in telecommunications, in addition to playing a substantial role in providing assistance for institutional and regulatory reforms in leasing and in supporting the supply response to these reforms. Limited impact was seen in small and medium enterprise (SME) access to finance, despite significant joint effort with the WB.
  • Publication
    Review of IDA Internal Controls : An Evaluation of Management’s Assessment and the IAD Review
    (Washington, DC, 2009-01) World Bank
    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
    The World Bank’s Economic and Sector Work and Technical Assistance, FY00-06
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-09) World Bank
    Economic and sector work (ESW) and non-lending technical assistance (TA) are two of the analytical and advisory services (AAA) through which the Bank provides knowledge support to its client countries. The objectives of ESW are to inform lending, inform government policy, build client capacity, stimulate public debate, and influence the development community. The objectives of TA are to assist in policy implementation, strengthen institutions, and facilitate knowledge exchange. ESW and TA are an essential part of the Bank's engagement with its clients it spent $910 million (or 26 percent of its spending on country services) on these products during FY00-06. The majority of ESW and TA met their objectives at least to an average extent during FY00-06, although there were substantial differences across countries and tasks. ESW and TA of higher technical quality were clearly more effective in meeting their objectives. Close collaboration with clients from task initiation through the formulation of recommendations was important for ESW and TA to be effective, whether clients were involved in the production of the task or not. Sustained follow-up after the completion of the tasks was important for effectiveness. Whether clients requested the tasks did not matter for effectiveness, although all tasks needed to be tailored to client needs and interests to be effective. ESW and TA were less effective in countries where government capacity was lower. Clients in middle-income countries prefer non-lending to lending services, and clients in all countries prefer TA over ESW.