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    Do Health Sector-Wide Approaches Achieve Results?: Emerging Evidence and Lessons from Six Countries
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009) Vaillancourt, Denise
    This technical paper distills the emerging experience and lessons of Sector-wide Approaches (SWAps) in the health sector, supported by the World Bank and other Development Partners (DPs), in six countries: Bangladesh, Ghana, Kyrgyz Republic, Nepal, Malawi and Tanzania. It draws on the findings of Project Performance Assessment Reports (PPARs) conducted by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) on health SWAp support operations in Bangladesh, Ghana and the Kyrgyz Republic, and of field-based case studies that assessed the Bank's lending and non-lending support to Health, Population and Nutrition (HNP) in Malawi and Nepal, where SWAps are more recent. This paper also incorporates the findings of an evaluation of Tanzania's health SWAp, commissioned by the Government of Tanzania, and financed by DPs. The design, substantiation, and validation of the findings and lessons of this study have benefited from a review of the SWAp literature and vetting of preliminary findings and lessons with SWAp practitioners. This study grew out of the SWAp portfolio review and the distillation of health SWAp experience to date, undertaken as input to IEG's recent evaluation of the World Bank's support to HNP, improving effectiveness and outcomes for the poor in health, nutrition and population: an evaluation of World Bank Group support since 1997. The paucity of health SWAp evaluations in the literature, the richness and complexity of the preliminary findings, and the strong demand, inside and outside of the Bank for more distillation of SWAp experience and lessons all were justification for the undertaking of a more in-depth analysis.
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    The Poverty Reduction Strategy Initiative : Findings from 10 Country Case Studies of World Bank and IMF Support
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005-01-01) World Bank Operations Evaluation Department ; IMF Independent Evaluation Office
    This book provides an independent assessment of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Initiative for the World Bank as well as the broader development community. It offers a in-depth review of the progress thus far, with particular focus on the role and effectiveness of the Bank's support, drawing from extensive discussions with national stakeholders in Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP) countries, research and analytical work, and country case study reports on ten PRSP countries: Albania, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Tajikistan, Tanzania, and Vietnam. The author of The Poverty Reduction Strategy Initiative concludes that the Initiative has led to improvements in national strategies and processes in some low-income countries, such as an increased poverty focus, a higher profile for monitoring results, and better donor-government dialogue. However, the contribution to broad poverty reduction, especially in more difficult country environments, is largely in jeopardy without significant changes. The author argues that the Initiative should be reoriented toward improving domestic processes and less on completion of documents, customizing the approach to particular country circumstances, filling analytical gaps to better understand which actions will provide the greatest poverty pay-off, and making sure the assistance programs of external partners are anchored in the country's poverty reduction strategy.
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    Partnership in Joint Country Assistance Evaluations: A Review of World Bank Experience
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005) Hassan, Fareed M. A.
    This paper reviews World Bank Operations Evaluation Department experience with partnerships in joint country assistance evaluations. The emphasis is on identifying emerging benefits and costs of joint evaluations and on extracting lessons for future partnerships. Country Assistance Evaluations examine Bank performance in a particular country, usually over the past five to ten years; report on its conformity with relevant Bank Country Assistance Strategies (CAS) and on the overall effectiveness of the strategies; and provide lessons for future strategies.
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    The United Republic of Tanzania : Evaluation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Process and Arrangements under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2004-07-06) IMF Independent Evaluation Office ; Operations Evaluation Department
    This evaluation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF) processes in Tanzania was jointly undertaken by the Operations Evaluation Department (OED) of the World Bank and the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the IMF. The goal of the evaluation, as emphasized in the joint terms of reference, is to inform the policies and internal processes of the World Bank and the IMF, but not to evaluate the performance of the government. The report is laid out as follows: section two provides a background to the poverty situation in Tanzania as well as the economic and political context. The section also looks at the national strategies and processes for policy formulation that preceded the introduction of the PRSP and the PRGF. Section three discusses the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper process in Tanzania, starting with a look at the relevance of the process to the key development challenges facing the country and then turns to the issue of how the underlying principles of the PRSP have been applied. It concludes with an analysis of the preliminary results.
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    Summaries of Ten Country Case Studies Undertaken as Part of the IEO Evaluation of the PRSP/PRGF and OED Review of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Process
    (Washington, DC, 2004-07-06) World Bank ; International Monetary Fund
    The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) launched the poverty reduction strategy (PRS) initiative in 1999 to improve the planning, implementation, and monitoring of public actions geared toward reducing poverty. The PRS paper and poverty reduction and growth facility (PRGF) were intended to transform the way the Bank and the fund operated in low income countries. This volume contains summaries of ten country case studies namely, Albania, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Tajikistan, Tanzania, and Vietnam conducted for the IMF's independent evaluation office (IEO) evaluation of the PRSP and PRGF and the World Bank's operations evaluation department (OED) evaluation of the PRS process. Evaluators interviewed government officials, civil society groups or representatives, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other external partners during field visits in all ten countries, and also reviewed internal and publicly available documents prepared by the IMF and World Bank staff. Stakeholders commented on the preliminary findings of the evaluation teams, and in most cases workshops were held at the end of the mission. The governments of the countries were asked to comment on the full case study reports, which reflect their remarks.