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Publication Making Waves – World Bank Group Support for the Blue Economy, 2012-2023 – An Independent Evaluation(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-08-23) World BankThis evaluation assesses how well the World Bank is supporting a blue economy approach to achieve sustainable and inclusive development of ocean and coastal states. A livable planet requires well-managed coastal and ocean resources, which are vital for inclusive growth, jobs, food and nutrition security, and climate resilience. However, these resources are in a state of emergency due to fragmented policies, regulatory gaps, and policy inaction. International actors have coalesced around a blue economy approach to address ocean and coastal governance failures. At the core of this approach is the need to achieve healthy ocean and coastal resources to ensure ecosystem services that support inclusive and equitable economic growth. This evaluation assesses how well the World Bank is supporting a blue economy approach to achieve sustainable and inclusive development of ocean and coastal states. The evaluation examines the World Bank’s articulation of the blue economy and its operationalization and offers lessons to inform the future of the World Bank’s blue economy approach.Publication The World Bank Group in Ecuador Country Program Evaluation, Fiscal Years 2008–22(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-08-09) World BankThis 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.Publication The World Bank Group in Papua New Guinea: Country Program Evaluation, Fiscal Years 2008–23(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-25) World BankPapua New Guinea has abundant resources in the form of oil and mineral wealth. But a complex set of factors, including systemic gender inequality, underinvestment in non-extractive sectors, and fragility compounded by vulnerability to disasters caused by natural hazards act as barriers to sustainable and inclusive growth of the country. This Country Program Evaluation (CPE) report assesses the relevance and effectiveness of World Bank Group support to Papua New Guinea between fiscal year FY08 and FY23. It assesses the Bank Group’s development effectiveness in addressing the above three core themes, namely: (i) lack of investment in Papua New Guinea’s non-extractive sectors and their poor performance, (ii) the economic exclusion of women and gender-based violence (GBV) issues associated with it, and (iii) unmitigated risks of disaster from natural hazards, and violence, and conflict. The report answers three specific questions. The first explores the extent to which the Bank Group adapted its engagement in line with key constraints, including in relation to development partners, changes in country context, and lessons from experience. The second focuses on the results of Bank Group support and explanatory factors for results under each them, answered by applying a gender lens where relevant. The third question explores the extent to which the Bank Group successfully identified and addressed conflict, violence, and disaster from natural hazards risks. The report offers key lessons to inform the World Bank Group’s future engagement with the country: (i) Data gaps need to be addressed to inform sound policy making and effective programming in Papua New Guinea. (ii) Declining governance quality and increasing bilateral aid will require the World Bank to reassess how it supports key policy reforms to achieve development impact, including through using DPOs. (iii) The Bank Group could elevate its impact on gender equality and GBV by shifting from a project-centric approach to a strategic country engagement approach. (iv) The negative effects that compound and interrelated risks pose to achieving development aims need to be addressed more comprehensively.Publication Nepal Country Program Evaluation: World Bank Group Support to Nepal, Fiscal Years 2014–23 (Approach Paper)(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-01-16) Independent Evaluation GroupThis Country Program Evaluation (CPE) will assess the performance of the World Bank Group’s support to Nepal in achieving its development objectives between 2014 and 2023. The evaluation will focus on the Bank Group’s support to Nepal as it tackled its long-term development challenges while undertaking political and institutional reforms relating to the shift to federalism and responding to multiple shocks and disasters. This period covered by this evaluation spans the last two country strategies—the FY14–18 Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) and the FY19–23 Country Partnership Framework (CPF). The CPE will assess the adaptive relevance and coherence of the Bank Group–supported program by examining how the Bank Group has adapted its support over time in response to changing conditions and priorities. This will include an examination of the Bank Group’s response to the 2015 earthquakes and the COVID-19 pandemic. The evaluation will assess the Bank Group’s work in three important thematic areas—resilience to natural disasters, federalism, and jobs and private sector development—in greater depth.Publication 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 BankThis 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.Publication Ethiopia Country Program Evaluation (Approach Paper)(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-01-16) Independent Evaluation GroupThe objective of this Country Program Evaluation (CPE) is to assess how well the World Bank Group supported Ethiopia in addressing key challenges that constrained its development and how that support adapted over time to respond to changing circumstances, an evolving relationship, and lessons from experience. The evaluation will cover fiscal years (FY)13–23. The time period is selected to include the last two Bank Group strategies to support Ethiopia and coincides with the period of theprevious two political administrations. The evaluation aims to inform the next Bank Group–supported Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Ethiopia expected in FY25.Publication A Focused Assessment of the International Development Association’s Private Sector Window: An Update to the Independent Evaluation Group’s 2021 Early-Stage Assessment(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-01-16) World BankThe private sector is essential for creating jobs and prosperity in poor countries, but developing it is challenging, especially in fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS). The IDA Private Sector Window (PSW) is a blended finance facility that enables the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and third-party private sector investors to conduct high-risk transactions in International Development Association (IDA) countries and FCS countries. This evaluation aims to assess the usage, market development potential, and enabling factors of the PSW. The evaluation assesses how the usage of the PSW has changed from its inception in 2017 to 2023 and explores its potential market development effects and its enabling factors, namely concessionality (for IFC and MIGA) and additionality (for IFC). Concessionality is the level of subsidy needed for IFC and MIGA to offer transactions in PSW-eligible countries at market prices. Additionality is the unique support IFC brings to private investments (on a project basis) that is not offered by commercial sources of finance. It comprises financial and nonfinancial additionality. This evaluation assesses the PSW across three IDA cycles: IDA18, which covers FY18–20; IDA19, which covers FY21–22; and IDA20, which covers FY23–25. It updates the 2021 IEG early-stage assessment of the PSW (FY18–20) and complements the IDA20 PSW Mid-Term Review, which was prepared jointly by IDA, IFC, and MIGA.Publication Results and Performance of the World Bank Group 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-12-31) World BankIEG’s Results and Performance of the World Bank Group 2023 report, also known as the RAP 2023, examines the evolution of project-level results and performance of the World Bank Group, including the World Bank, comprising the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). The report also analyzes the project development outcomes that underlie project performance ratings, and the validity of the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) frameworks tasked with measuring them. This is the first RAP with a substantial number of projects that were implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. World Bank, IFC, and MIGA projects faced many obstacles during implementation, especially disruptions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The report examines the factors that shaped the implementation and performance of these projects, particularly in the context of the pandemic. In terms of methodology, the report incorporates novel data and evaluation methods, including supervised machine learning, and conducts similar analyses across the different Bank Group Institutions while taking into account each institution’s different evaluation and rating methods. The RAP updated project performance rating trends - covering World Bank lending projects, IFC investment and advisory projects, and MIGA guarantee projects - from fiscal year (FY)12 to FY 22. It used in-depth analyses to examine the evolution of development outcomes, how they relate to project performance ratings, and what factors influenced the implementation and performance of Bank Group projects within the context of the pandemic. The report offers future directions of travel for the three institutions across the World Bank Group.Publication An Evaluation of World Bank and International Finance Corporation Engagement for Gender Equality over the Past 10 Years: Approach Paper(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-11-14) Independent Evaluation GroupThis Approach Paper proposes an independent evaluation of the results achieved by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in supporting countries (understood as governments, private sector, civil society, and citizens at large) to address gender inequalities and the contribution of the gender strategy for fiscal years (FY)16–23.Publication Independent Evaluation Group Validation of the Management Action Record 2023(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-10-30) Independent Evaluation GroupThe report provides the Independent Evaluation Group’s (IEGs) validation of World Bank Group management’s report Learning and Adapting for Outcomes through the Management Action Record 2023: A World Bank Group Management Report on Implementation of IEG Recommendations for the period July 2022 to June 2023. The purpose of the Management Action Record (MAR) assessment system is to support accountability, learning, and adaptation for the Bank Group’s implementation of recommendations from IEG evaluations. This validation document presents IEG’s assessment of progress toward achieving the intended outcomes of evaluations and the evidence in management’s MAR report. The Bank Group made steady progress in implementing IEG recommendations through delivering internal products and adapting processes; in some cases, it has achieved meaningful change of direction that shows that the outcomes of recommendations are being achieved. The validation assessed the evidence for all 22 IEG evaluations included in the MAR, that is, all evaluations reviewed by the Board Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE) between FY19 and FY22. These 22 evaluations contain 59 recommendations.