01. Annual Reports & Independent Evaluations
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Publication
FY 2022 Panama Country Opinion Survey Report
(Washington, DC, 2023-05-08)The Country Opinion Survey in Panama assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Panama perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Panama on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Panama; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Panama; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Panama; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Panama. -
Publication
FY 2022 Angola Country Opinion Survey Report
(Washington, DC, 2023-05-08)The Country Opinion Survey in Angola assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Angola perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Angola on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Angola; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Angola; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Angola; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Angola. -
Publication
The Rigor of Case-Based Causal Analysis: Busting Myths through a Demonstration
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-05-02)Several myths persist within research and evaluation circles about the power and limitations of evaluation designs that use cases (or case studies) as their primary empirical material (case-based evaluation designs). Using a real-world application, this paper busts two myths regarding the use of case-based designs in evaluations that aim to answer effectiveness questions and unpack the relationships between interventions and observed changes in outcomes (broadly known as causal analysis): that case studies cannot be used for causal analysis and that it is impossible to generalize from case studies. Through a detailed demonstration of how the evaluation of the World Bank’s support to carbon finance has been designed and implemented, the paper undoes these preconceived ideas about the inferential, explanatory, and generalizability power of case-based evaluation designs. -
Publication
The World Bank’s Role in and Use of the Low-Income Country Debt Sustainability Framework: Independent Evaluation Group
(Washington, DC, 2023-05-02)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. -
Publication
World Bank Group Support to Somalia, Fiscal Years 2013–22 - Country Program Evaluation (Approach Paper, March 2, 2023)
(Washington, DC, 2023-03-22)Somalia is today among the poorest and most fragile countries in the world, facing myriad development challenges related to ongoing conflict, climate change, food insecurity, natural disasters, and displacement. Overlapping crises related to the COVID-19 pandemic, a prolonged drought, and macroeconomic shocks from rising food and fuel costs have worsened socioeconomic conditions (World Bank 2022). Seventy-one percent of Somalis lived in extreme poverty in 2021, compared with 28 percent for Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank 2021). Average life expectancy was 57.4 years, and maternal mortality stood at 734 for every 100,000 births (World Bank 2018d). The country’s Sustainable Development Goal ranking was 160th out of 163. The Somalia Country Program Evaluation (CPE) will assess the evolution of the World Bank Group’s support over fiscal years (FY)13–22 and the extent to which the Bank Group adequately prepared for an eventual normalization of relations with Somalia, tailored its support to the conflict and fragility situation in Somalia and evolving circumstances and country priorities, and learned from experience. It will seek to inform the preparation of the next Somalia Country Partnership Framework (CPF) and may be relevant to broader Bank Group engagement in countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV). -
Publication
The World Bank Group in Mozambique, Fiscal Years 2008-21 - Country Program Evaluation
(Washington, DC, 2023-03-22)Between 1993 and 2013, Mozambique became one of the fastest-growing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa boosting incomes and living standards. Political and macroeconomic stability provided the foundation for robust growth led by a rebounding agricultural sector and significant donor support. Growth, however, decelerated beginning in 2016 in the face of low commodity prices, a hidden debt crisis, and natural disasters. In FY18, Mozambique was formally classified as a fragile country. The Covid-19 pandemic further eroded growth. In light of the country’s evolving context, this Country Program Evaluation (CPE) reviews the World Bank Group’s engagement in Mozambique over the period FY08 into FY21. The CPE assesses the extent to which the Bank Group’s support was relevant to Mozambique’s main development challenges and drivers of fragility as well as how Bank Group support evolved and adapted over time. The evaluation delves into four themes that are relevant to Mozambique’s pursuit of the Bank Group’s Twin Goals of Poverty Reduction and Shared Prosperity: (i) low agricultural productivity; (ii) unequal access to basic services; (iii) weak institutions and governance; and (iv) vulnerability to climate change and natural disasters. The evaluation presents findings from each of the four themes covered and distills lessons from Bank Group experience in Mozambique to inform future strategies and engagements. -
Publication
An Evaluation of World Bank Group Support to Jobs and Labor Market Reform through International Development Association Financing (Approach Paper, March 2, 2023)
(Washington, DC, 2023-03-22)The International Development Association (IDA) has included jobs as a special theme since the 17th Replenishment of IDA (IDA17) in 2014, when it explicitly recognized the role played by labor markets in intermediating between growth and inclusion. This acknowledgment of jobs marked a shift in IDA’s inclusive growth strategy. Before the IDA17 strategy paper, IDA emphasized growth and the use of social safety nets to mitigate the effects of poverty. Beginning in 2014, however, jobs became more central to IDA’s strategy for inclusive growth and for achieving the twin goals. IDA17, the 18th Replenishment of IDA, and the 19th Replenishment of IDA established specific policy commitments and results indicators under the jobs-related special theme. At the same time, the World Bank Group expanded and deepened its attention to jobs, resulting in an increasingly multidimensional jobs agenda characterized by a growing body of lending, technical assistance and diagnostics, and a strong focus on IDA-eligible countries, including through use of the Country Private Sector Diagnostic and IDA’s private sector window. This evaluation will assess IDA’s support for jobs-related objectives over fiscal years (FY)14–22, the period covering three IDA replenishments during which jobs became an IDA special theme (IDA17, the 18th Replenishment of IDA, and the 19th Replenishment of IDA). The objectives of this assessment are to interrogate the contribution of IDA’s Bank Group financing to improving outcomes related to more, better paying, and more inclusive jobs; the role of IDA’s jobs strategy at the corporate, country, and operational levels in this context; and the analytical underpinnings of jobs-related interventions. The evaluation will provide lessons and recommendations to inform the design of the Bank Group’s future multidimensional jobs support and enhance IDA’s effectiveness in this space based on eight years of strategic, diagnostic, and operational experience. -
Publication
The World Bank Group’s Early Support to Addressing the COVID-19 Economic Response, April 2020 - June 2021: An Early-Stage Evaluation
(Washington, DC, 2023)In the face of the global economic crisis caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the World Bank delivered the largest crisis response in its history. This evaluation assesses the Bank Group’s early response to the economic crises caused by COVID-19, and examines interventions over the 15 months from April 2020 through June 2021. The report considers two evaluation windows: the acute crisis phase (April 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020) and the incipient recovery phase (January 1, 2021 to June 30, 2021). The objective of identifying the two windows was to assess whether the Bank Group internalized learning from the first period of the crisis to address the challenges that were materializing in the (incipient) recovery phase. The evaluation assesses the relevance of the Bank Group’s interventions on three dimensions: the extent to which the Bank Group targeted its early response based on clients’ and sectors’ needs, the extent to which the Bank Group used timely diagnostics and lessons from past crises to inform its early response, and the extent to which the early response leveraged the Bank Group’s comparative advantages. The evaluation studies the quality of the Bank Group response on three dimensions: the extent to which the Bank Group early response influenced client strategies; the extent to which the Bank Group coordinated its early response among its constituent institutions and with development partners; and how well the Bank Group early response handled monitoring, safeguards, and governance. The evaluation offers two near-term recommendations to strengthen the role of the Bank Group as a crisis responder, which is now more critical than ever. -
Publication
The World Bank’s Early Support to Addressing Coronavirus (COVID-19) Health and Social Response - An Early-Stage Evaluation
(Washington, DC, 2022-11-15)This evaluation assesses the quality of the World Bank’s early response to the COVID-19 crisis and the initial steps toward recovery, focusing on the health and social response. It concentrates on the relief stage and support to restructure systems in the first 15 months of the pandemic (February 1, 2020, to April 30, 2021) in 106 countries. A parallel Independent Evaluation Group evaluation looks at the World Bank Group support to address the economic implications of the pandemic. To assess the quality of the response, the evaluation is guided by a theory of action that synthesizes evidence in three dimensions: relevance of support to the needs of countries; implementation, learning, and adjustment; and operational policy and partnerships to support smooth responses in countries. As the response is ongoing, the evaluation does not assess effectiveness but considers early results and pathways that are expected to lead to outcomes. The findings from the evaluation inform four recommendations for ensuring stronger future preparedness: (i) Use the World Bank’s crisis recovery efforts to strengthen the resilience of essential health and education. (ii) Apply a gender equality lens to health and social crisis response actions across sectors. (iii) Help countries strengthen regional cooperation and crisis response capacities for public health preparedness. (iv) Build on the COVID-19 experience to strengthen the World Bank’s internal crisis preparedness so that it has the tools and procedures ready to respond in future emergencies. -
Publication
FY 2022 Rwanda Country Opinion Survey Report
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The country opinion survey in Rwanda assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Rwanda perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral and bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Rwanda on: (1) their views regarding the general environment in Rwanda; (2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Rwanda; (3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Rwanda; and (4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Rwanda.