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Strengthening the World Bank's Role in Global Programs and Partnerships

2006, Operations Evaluation Department

This volume reports on a conference held by the World Bank's independent Operations Evaluation Department (OED) to discuss the Bank's rote in global program partnerships. The starting point for the discussions was a comprehensive review by OED of the effectiveness of 26 of the largest programs, including the Consultative Group on International AgricuRural Research and programs in health, environment, and trade. Participants at the conference provided crosscutting lessons about program design, implementation, and evaluation, and shared views about how the Bank can best help build commitment and assure financing for high priority global public goods that benefit the poor.

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The Effectiveness of World Bank Support for Community-Based and -Driven Development

2005, Operations Evaluation Department

This report analyzes the effectiveness of the World Bank's lending support for the growing area of community-based development (CBD) and community-driven development (CDD). The latter supports the empowerment of the poor by giving communities control over subproject resources and decisions, while CBD gives communities less responsibility and emphasizes collaboration, consultation, or sharing information with them on project activities. Since the late 1990s, the focus of Bank-supported CBD/CDD projects has shifted toward CDD, though many CDD projects also include CBD components.

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Evaluation of World Bank Assistance to Pacific Member Countries, 1992-2002

2005, Operations Evaluation Department

The nine Pacific Member Countries (PMCs) of the World Bank Group are Fiji Islands, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga , and Vanuatu. This evaluation covers Bank assistance to the PMCs since 1992. The Country Assistance Evaluation (CAE) examines whether:(a) the objectives of Bank and International Development Association (IDA) assistance were relevant; (b) the Bank's assistance program was effectively designed and consistent with its objectives; and (c) the Bank's program achieved its objectives and had a substantial impact on the country's development during this period. Examining these questions allows the CAE to draw lessons and offer recommendations for future Bank assistance. Annex F describes the methodological approach.

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Putting Social Development to Work for the Poor : An OED Review of World Bank Activities

2005, Operations Evaluation Department

This book finds that there is a strong positive association between including social development themes and project success. The Bank's social development resources are deployed in ways that are not optimally supportive of its social development goals, however. The study found that the Bank's mission and policy priorities related to social development receive uneven treatment across Regions, and gaps in skills and M&E lead to uneven treatment within countries. To improve development outcomes, the Bank needs to: 1) demonstrate the value of incorporating social development themes in its work to its own staff as well as its borrowers; 2) develop capacity to identify critically needed social knowledge and to facilitate its flow; 3) provide staff with consistent access to essential social information to build social development into project designs and ensure that social development concerns are addressed during implementation (this will likely involve making greater use of in-country capacity); 4) ensure that stated Bank or policy priorities receive adequate treatment across Regions and countries, and throughout the project cycle; and 5) identify, and promote integration within, thematic combinations that improve outcomes.

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2004 Annual Review of Development Effectiveness : The World Bank's Contributions to Poverty Reduction

2005, Operations Evaluation Department

This 2004 Annual Review of Development Effectiveness (ARDE): The World Bank's Contributions to Poverty Reduction, looks at the growth and poverty reduction experience of client countries. It assesses the extent to which Bank interventions have contributed to growth and poverty reduction and the effectiveness of different types of interventions. The review uses the key elements of the Bank's 2001 poverty reduction strategy to examine the extent to which these elements respond to the needs of the poor, are actually being carried out, and are having an impact. Like previous ARDEs, this review draws primarily on OED's recent evaluation studies, synthesizing and highlighting the findings of these studies around a common theme-in this case, poverty reduction.

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Capacity Building in Africa : An OED Evaluation of World Bank Support

2005, Operations Evaluation Department

This evaluation assesses the relevance and effectiveness of Bank support for public sector capacity building in Africa, over the past 10 years. It draws on studies of Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, and Mozambique; aggregate assessments of country strategies and operations across the Bank's Africa Region; and, reviews of three corporate and Regional programs dedicated to capacity building-the World Bank Institute, the Institutional Development Fund, and the Bank-supported African Capacity Building Foundation. Main findings suggest recent changes in approach have made Bank support more relevant; most capacity support remains fragmented; sector-specific capacity building approaches need strengthening; tools and instruments could be more effectively and fully utilized; and, quality assurance is inadequate. These findings underscore the importance of approaching capacity building in Africa as a core objective, and ensuring that Bank capacity building support is country-owned, results oriented, and evidence-based. The evaluation recommends that: the Bank strengthen its knowledge base, and amplify its framework for public sector capacity building, to better help countries; sector and thematic leadership should develop sector-specific guidance on diagnosing public sector capacity needs, and ways of monitoring and evaluating interventions; regional senior management should ensure that Country Assistance Strategies are used effectively to help countries identify, and strengthen the capacities they need to plan, implement, and measure the results of their poverty reduction strategies; and, the Bank should reassess what role training should play in its capacity building support, how it should be provided, and what should be the respective roles of a central training unit, and Regional programs in any future support for this activity.

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Evaluating a Decade of World Bank Gender Policy : 1990-99

2005, Operations Evaluation Department

As part of the Bank's poverty reduction mandate, the Bank's 1994 Operational Policy on Gender Dimensions of Development aimed to reduce gender disparity and increase the participation of women in the economic development of their countries. This evaluation examines the relevance and results of this policy.

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Committing to Results : Improving the Effectiveness of HIV/AIDS Assistance, An OED Evaluation of the World Bank's Assistance for HIV/AIDS Control

2005, Operations Evaluation Department

This evaluation assesses the development effectiveness of the World Bank's country-level HIV/AIDS assistance defined as policy dialogue, analytic work, and lending with the explicit objective of reducing the scope or impact of the AIDS epidemic. This is the first comprehensive evaluation of the World Bank's HIV/AIDS support to countries, from the beginning of the epidemic through mid-2004. Because the Bank's assistance is for implementation of government programs by government, it provides important insights on how national AIDS programs can be made more effective. For the purposes of the evaluation, HIV/AIDS assistance includes policy dialogue, analytic work, and lending with the explicit objective of reducing the scope or impact of the AIDS epidemic. Few HIV/AIDS projects have been completed and the vast majority of projects and commitments are ongoing. With this in mind, the three substantive chapters address: 1) The evolution and phases of the Bank's institutional response and an overview of the portfolio of HIV/AIDS assistance since the start of the epidemic. 2) Findings on the efficacy of the "first generation" of completed World Bank country-level, HIV/AIDS assistance, and lessons from that experience. 3) An assessment of the assumptions, design, risks, and implementation to date of 24 ongoing country-level AIDS projects. in the Africa Multi-Country AIDS Program (MAP).

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Maintaining Momentum to 2015 : An Impact Evaluation of Interventions to Improve Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition in Bangladesh

2005, Operations Evaluation Department

This report addresses the issue of what publicly-supported programs and external assistance from the Bank and other agencies can do to accelerate attainment of targets such as reducing infant mortality by two-thirds. The evidence presented here relates to Bangladesh, a country which has made spectacular progress but needs to maintain momentum in order to achieve its own poverty reduction goals. The report addresses the following issues: (1) What has happened to child health and nutrition outcomes and fertility in Bangladesh since 1990? Are the poor sharing in the progress which is being made? (2) What have been the main determinants of maternal and child health outcomes in Bangladesh over this period? (3) Given these determinants, what can be said about the impact of publicly and externally-supported programs - notably those of the World Bank and DFID - to improve health and nutrition? (4) To the extent that interventions have brought about positive impacts, have they done so in a cost effective manner?

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Country Assistance Evaluation Retrospective : An OED Self-Evaluation

2005, Operations Evaluation Department

This report is a self-evaluation of the Operations Evaluation Department's (OED) Country Assistance Evaluations (CAEs). CAEs examine World Bank performance in a particular country, usually over the past four to five years, and report on its conformity with the relevant Bank Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) and on the overall effectiveness of the specific CAS. This Retrospective addresses the question "What Have We Learned?" by compiling lessons relevant for developing country assistance strategies from the most recent batch of CAEs. Second, it assesses revisions to the CAE process, methodology, and presentation to answer the question "How Can the CAE Instrument Be Improved?"