01. Annual Reports & Independent Evaluations

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The World Bank Group in Ecuador Country Program Evaluation, Fiscal Years 2008–22
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-08-09) World Bank
This evaluation assesses the relevance and effectiveness of the World Bank Group’s support to Ecuador during Fiscal Years 2008-22. In 2007, the government of Ecuador canceled ongoing operations and brought relations with the World Bank Group (WBG) to a near total break. The WBG’s support to Ecuador during the evaluation period is thus set within the context of a gradual and deliberate restoration of a partnership, following a six-year period (Fiscal Years 2008-13) without a formal engagement strategy. During this hiatus, the Bank Group took proactive steps to rebuild dialogue with the government of Ecuador and scope partnerships, using nonlending technical assistance to respond to requests across different sectors and levels of government. Furthermore, by reestablishing lending at the municipal level, the WBG was able to demonstrate strategic and financial value and overcome the impasse in dialogue at the national level. This evaluation examines the Bank Group’s strategy along two interconnected fronts. Firstly, the gradual reestablishment of a constructive partnership with the government after a break in relations and, secondly, the WBG’s support to the country’s rebalancing to a fiscally sustainable, private sector–led growth model—one that ensured [protection of the vulnerable over the transition. The evaluation includes that may be of relevance to future WBG engagements in Ecuador and future WBG engagements after a hiatus in dialogue.
World Bank Support to Jobs and Labor Market Reform through International Development Association Financing: A First-Stage Evaluation
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-01-16) World Bank
This evaluation is the first stage of the Independent Evaluation Group’s assessment of the World Bank’s support for more, better, and more inclusive jobs through International Development Association (IDA) financing, and it assesses the implementation of IDA-supported interventions directly supporting its jobs objectives across the three Replenishment cycles from fiscal years 2015 to 2022. Supporting the creation of more, better, and more inclusive jobs is critical towards achieving the goals of poverty reduction and shared prosperity in countries. This is especially true for countries that are eligible for International Development Association (IDA) financing. Since 2014, IDA has included jobs as a special theme, and subsequent IDA replenishments have had what this evaluation calls an ‘IDA jobs strategy.’ This strategy included explicit objectives, a series of policy commitments to achieve them, and results indicators to track them. This evaluation represents the first stage of the Independent Evaluation Group’s assessment of the World Bank’s performance in supporting more, better, and more inclusive jobs through IDA financing. It assesses the implementation of IDA-supported interventions that directly supported its jobs objectives across the three Replenishment cycles from fiscal years 2015 to 2022. The evaluation answers two questions: (i) To what extent IDA’s strategy on jobs was grounded in sound analytics, adaptive, and operationally relevant (ii) To what extent the strategy has been translated into relevant and effective jobs interventions that directly address the objectives of more, better, and more inclusive jobs The scope of the evaluation is limited to the three main channels for achieving IDA jobs objectives: acting on labor demand, increasing labor supply, and improving labor market flexibility and geographic mobility.The report offers recommendations for further strengthening of the IDA jobs agenda towards the objective of supporting more, better, and more inclusive jobs.
World Bank Annual Report 2023: A New Era in Development
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-28) World Bank
This annual report, which covers the period from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, has been prepared by the Executive Directors of both the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA)—collectively known as the World Bank—in accordance with the respective bylaws of the two institutions. Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, has submitted this report, together with the accompanying administrative budgets and audited financial statements, to the Board of Governors.
International Finance Corporation Platforms Approach: Addressing Development Challenges at Scale - An Independent Evaluation (Approach Paper)
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-08-03) World Bank
Recurring development challenges and new compounding crises affecting client countries and firms constrain the ambition of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to contribute to attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The recurring challenges, including insufficient private sector participation in development financing, continue to affect emerging markets and developing economies and the firms within them. Two related initiatives—the IFC capital increase and the IFC 3.0 strategy—underpin IFC’s goal to contribute to the SDGs by 2030. IFC’s capital increase package was based on the IFC 3.0 strategy, which requires creating new markets through advisory and upstream services and mobilizing private capital from new sources and through new approaches (IFC 2017, 2018, 2020a). IFC has introduced a platforms approach to scale up its interventions in accordance with IFC 3.0 and the capital increase objectives. IFC defines platforms as thematic interventions—at a regional, global, or sectoral level—designed to address a specific development challenge (IFC 2022b). The main purpose of the evaluation is to assess whether the platforms approach offers IFC a means to achieve its capital increase and IFC 3.0 objectives while meeting the Board’s and clients’ expectations.
International Finance Corporation Additionality in Middle-Income Countries: An Independent Evaluation April 17, 2022
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-05-03) World Bank
Additionality is a core feature of private sector development finance institutions (DFIs). It is the unique contribution that a DFI or a multilateral/ bilateral bank brings to a private investment project that is not offered by commercial sources of finance. The key idea is that the investment project should add value without crowding out private sector activity. Identifying and articulating project additionality is particularly important in middle- income countries (MICs) since financial markets in MICs are more developed, and private investment far exceeds official development assistance. This evaluation report examines the relevance and effectiveness of IFC’s approach to additionality in MICs and seeks to explain the factors that contribute to or constrain its realization. While the evaluation focuses on IFC’s additionality on the level of the project, it also applies the lens of country and sector context to draw additional learning. Thus, it considers whether additionality can occur beyond the level of a single project—for example, at the country and sector level. Both at the project level and beyond the project, the evaluation derives lessons and offers recommendations on how IFC can further strengthen its additionality.
The World Bank’s Role in and Use of the Low-Income Country Debt Sustainability Framework: Independent Evaluation Group
(Washington, DC, 2023-05-02) World Bank
This evaluation, requested by the Committee on Development Effectiveness of the Executive Board of the International Development Association (IDA), is intended to provide input and insight into the upcoming World Bank–International Monetary Fund (IMF) review of the Low-Income Country Debt Sustainability Framework (LICDSF) currently planned for fiscal year 2023. The sharp rise in debt stress among low-income countries and a changing global risk landscape leading up to and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed concerns with debt sustainability to the top of the global policy agenda. This evaluation assesses the World Bank’s inputs into the LIC-DSF and how it uses LIC-DSF outputs to inform various corporate and country-level decisions. Main findings and recommendations include: (i) Expectations of the World Bank in taking the lead on long-term growth prospects should be clarified. (ii) Recently increased attention to debt data coverage should be sustained and extended; greater attention is needed to assess data quality. (iii) The DSA should be more directly and consistently used to inform priorities for the identification of fiscally oriented prior actions in development policy operations and SDFP performance and policy actions. (iv) The World Bank should continue to give increasing attention in the LIC-DSF to the long-term implications of climate change, in terms of both growth and fiscal requirements of adaptation and mitigation.
The World Bank Annual Report 2022: Helping Countries Adapt to a Changing World
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022) World Bank
The Annual Report is prepared by the Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA)--collectively known as the World Bank--in accordance with the by-laws of the two institutions. The President of the IBRD and IDA and the Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors submit the Report, together with the accompanying administrative budgets and audited financial statements, to the Board of Governors.
The World Bank Annual Report 2021: From Crisis to Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Recovery
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-10-01) World Bank
The Annual Report is prepared by the Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA)--collectively known as the World Bank--in accordance with the by-laws of the two institutions. The President of the IBRD and IDA and the Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors submits the Report, together with the accompanying administrative budgets and audited financial statements, to the Board of Governors.
World Bank Group Approaches to Mobilize Private Capital for Development: An Independent Evaluation
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-01-20) World Bank
To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, development institutions will need to leverage an unprecedented amount of private sector capital. This is more pressing in the current context as COVID-19 recoveries will require mobilizing both public and private sources in the short to medium term. Consequently, private capital mobilization (PCM) has become a World Bank Group priority, with efforts being deployed across all Bank Group institutions, under the context of the Maximizing Finance for Development (MFD) strategy. This evaluation offers IEG’s first systematic assessment of the Bank Group’s approaches to mobilize private capital to achieve development outcomes by engaging with investors and project sponsors. The evaluation finds Bank Group PCM approaches to have been relevant to both country and corporate clients, although partially meeting investor’s priorities and expectations. The evaluation finds that PCM approaches are mostly effective in mobilizing private capital and points to the untapped PCM potential that still exists even in low-income and lower-middle income countries. The evaluation also highlights important gaps: IBRD PCM targets have not cascaded to Regional units and Global Practices (GPs), and IFC PCM approaches are not consistently aligned with investors’ risk appetites. The evaluation identifies three near-term actions that can enhance the ability of the Bank Group to mobilize private capital and thus improve the probability of meeting corporate targets and improving outcomes: (i) To meet the 2030 PCM targets, prioritize client countries for PCM approaches, with corresponding targets cascading to the Regional units and GPs (IBRD); (ii) Expand PCM platforms, guarantees, and disaster risk management products commensurate with project pipeline development (World Bank Group); and (iii) Develop new PCM products and improve product alignment with the needs of new investor groups and partners (IFC and MIGA).
The International Development Association’s Sustainable Development Finance Policy: An Early-Stage Evaluation
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021) World Bank; Independent Evaluation Group
This evaluation provides an early-stage assessment of the Sustainable Development Finance Policy (SDFP) of the International Development Association (IDA), which went into effect July 1, 2020. A steep rise in debt vulnerabilities in IDA-eligible countries over the past decade highlighted weaknesses in the previous policy, the Non-Concessional Borrowing Policy (NCBP), and precipitated IDA deputies' request for adaptation in IDA's allocation and financial policies through the SDFP. The SDFP improves on the NCBP by broadening country coverage to include more countries at risk of debt distress, and it includes domestic debt, which has been an important factor in rising debt stress for IDA-eligible countries. The SDFP is intended to enhance incentives to address country-specific drivers of debt stress. This evaluation assesses whether there is scope to improve the design and implementation of the SDFP and whether potentially vulnerable countries are excluded from performing necessary performance and policy actions (PPAs), given the speed at which some IDA-eligible countries have moved to higher levels of debt distress. The evaluation also assesses whether PPAs are systematically targeting the most important country-specific drivers of debt stress and offers principles that to guide future PPAs.