01. Annual Reports & Independent Evaluations

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The Global Invasive Species Program

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009-09-03) Independent Evaluation Group

The Global Invasive Species Program (GISP) is an independent, not-for-profit association whose mission is to conserve biodiversity and sustain human livelihoods by minimizing the spread and impact of invasive alien species (IAS) and which is presently located in the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) in Nairobi, Kenya. Its current membership is limited to the four founding members of GISP. GISP was supported for three years (FY04-FY06) by the World Bank through funds made available through the Development Grant Facility (DGF) and continues to receive Bank support through the Bank-Netherlands Partnership Program (BNPP). Although GISP is a relatively small program, the World Bank's DGF contribution of US$1.7 million accounted for 72 percent of the program's financing during this three-year period. GISP is governed by an Executive Board which at the time of the Global Program Review (GPR) was composed of seven persons, including in some cases the most senior ranked members of the represented member organizations.
GRI Index FY09

(Washington, DC, 2009-06-30) World Bank

The response to the GRI Indicators presents a glimpse into the World Banks (also known as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or IBRD in the capital market) complex suite of activities. Topics that are of interest to sustainable investment communities, NGOs, and country clients determine materiality for the purposes of this report. Reporting priorities are determined annually based on the corporate priorities of the given year and queries by the SRI community. Stakeholders are also identified with the assistance of relevant departments throughout the Bank. This Review encompasses World Bank operations globally. The World Bank consists of two agencies: IBRD and IDA (International Development Agency). Except for the terms of lending to member countries, the agencies are tightly integrated and work as a single unit. Therefore, staff of the World Bank, are considered ‘IBRD’ staff, even if they work on IDA funded projects or for other donor-funded initiatives, through hundreds of trust funds. Similarly, World Bank manages the buildings that house staff that work on IBRD, IDA, MIGA, and GEF projects. GRI indicators for EN apply primarily to performance of Washington, D.C. facilities (which house 60 percent of World Bank staff) with country office data noted, when relevant.
Earnings Growth and Employment Creation: An Assessment of World Bank Support in Three Middle-Income Countries

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-06-01) Independent Evaluation Group

The primary aim of this evaluation is to develop lessons from the Bank’s experience in the three selected countries of Columbia, Tunisia, and Turkey regarding assistance aimed at employment creation and earnings growth. The evaluation focuses on employment creation and earnings growth because these have a strong bearing on the extent to which the central objective of poverty reduction is achieved. The evaluation assesses the impact of the Bank’s assistance on employment outcomes and focuses on relevance and effectiveness of Bank engagement on employment issues. Two findings in connection with outcomes across the three countries are highlighted. First, progress in economic growth and earnings was better than progress in employment and unemployment. Second, although the availability of statistics on employment and earnings outcomes has improved, there are still significant deficiencies. These findings suggest a number of implications for Bank support during the global unemployment crisis as follows: (a) deploy the Bank’s integrative capability to provide support in the different areas affecting employment outcomes; (b) focus on the classical, cyclical, and structural sources of unemployment; (c) update and improve employment and earnings data; (d) adjust programs to emphasize support with strong employment earnings effects;(e)advise countries on affordable fiscal stimuli; (f) support the development of unemployment insurance mechanisms; and (g) develop strategies to advance job flexibility and worker protection. IEG recommends that the Bank continue focusing on advice and projects to improve coverage and quality.
Global Development Network

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009-05-28) Independent Evaluation Group

This is the Global Program Review (GPR) of the Global Development Network (GDN). Established in 1999 as a global partnership program with a secretariat located in the World Bank, it was spun off as an independent not-for-profit organization based in Washington, DC, in 2001 and then relocated to New Delhi, India, as an international organization in 2004. GDN's overarching goal has been to promote the generation, sharing, and application to policy of multidisciplinary knowledge for the purpose of development. To accomplish this, GDN has focused on three core program objectives: (1) generating high-quality, policy-relevant research in developing and transition countries; (2) building research and policy outreach capacity among researchers in those countries to improve the quality and expand the policy influence of their work on a national and international level; and (3) promoting greater linkages between researchers and the policy process to foster effective, evidence-based policy-making.
The World Bank Annual Report 2009: Year in Review, Volume 2. Financial statements

(Washington, DC, 2009) World Bank

The World Bank group, among the world's largest development institutions, is a major source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. In fiscal 2009, the World Bank group sponsored 767 projects with a total commitment of $58.8 billion, distributed in credits, loans, grants, and guarantees. This fiscal year's funding marks a 54 percent increase over the previous fiscal year and a record high for the Bank group. The Bank group's investment projects are aimed largely at improving infrastructure services associated with poverty reduction and enhanced growth. In fiscal 2009, the Bank group committed $20.7 billion to infrastructure, a critical sector to provide the foundation for rapid recovery from the crisis and to support job creation. The sustainable infrastructure action plan, launched in July 2008, will leverage up to $72 billion to provide additional financing of up to $149 billion in public and private investments over fiscal 2009-11. The Bank group's investment projects are aimed largely at improving infrastructure services associated with poverty reduction and enhanced growth.
The World Bank Annual Report 2009: Year in Review, Volume 1

(Washington, DC, 2009) World Bank

The World Bank group, among the world's largest development institutions, is a major source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. In fiscal 2009, the World Bank group sponsored 767 projects with a total commitment of $58.8 billion, distributed in credits, loans, grants, and guarantees. This fiscal year's funding marks a 54 percent increase over the previous fiscal year and a record high for the Bank group. The Bank group's investment projects are aimed largely at improving infrastructure services associated with poverty reduction and enhanced growth. In fiscal 2009, the Bank group committed $20.7 billion to infrastructure, a critical sector to provide the foundation for rapid recovery from the crisis and to support job creation. The sustainable infrastructure action plan, launched in July 2008, will leverage up to $72 billion to provide additional financing of up to $149 billion in public and private investments over fiscal 2009-11. The Bank group's investment projects are aimed largely at improving infrastructure services associated with poverty reduction and enhanced growth.
Lessons from World Bank Group Responses to Past Financial Crises

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009) Independent Evaluation Group

A worldwide financial crisis of enormous magnitude continues to unfold rapidly. Unlike other crises in recent decades, the current episode is rooted in industrial countries' financial systems and is affecting low-income and middle-income countries (MICs) alike. Defaults on securitized sub-prime mortgages as a real estate market bubble burst led to failures or near-failures of several large financial institutions and a collapse of inter-bank and commercial paper markets. A tightening of credit, combined with declining consumer confidence, has brought on worldwide recession with growing unemployment, and many fear that the downturn will be severe and protracted. At the same time, the rapidly multiplying signs of contraction are prompting strong responses, including fiscal stimulus packages and reductions in benchmark lending rates, on the part of several of the affected developed countries. The Bank Group is well placed to help mitigate the impact of the current crisis with financing and advisory services, and its clients are already requesting increased support. A rapid, high-quality response that combines financial and advisory support can do much to ease the inevitable ramifications of the crisis. Lessons from evaluations of previous Bank Group responses to past crises can help inform the response to the current crisis in order to increase its effectiveness.
The World Bank Group Guarantee Instruments 1990-2007 : An Independent Evaluation

(Washington, DC, 2009) World Bank

This evaluation reviews the World Bank Group's (WBG's) experience with guarantee instruments during 1990-2007. Although these instruments have been an established product line of the WBG for two decades, they have not been rigorously evaluated across the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). The study asks three main questions: (1) should the WBG be in the guarantee business? (2) Have guarantee instruments in the three WBG institutions been used to their potential as reflected in WBG expectations and perceived demand? And, (3) is the WBG appropriately organized to deliver its range of guarantee products in an effective and efficient manner? The challenge for the WBG is to create an environment in which guarantee and insurance products can be deployed alongside other WBG instruments in a flexible and efficient manner to meet client needs. The report concludes that maintaining the status quo, particularly in the delivery of political risk mitigation products, ought not to be an option. It suggests that WBG senior management should decide whether to take a set of collective and individually tailored actions within the current institutional structure or to adopt a new organizational structure for product delivery.
Improving Effectiveness and Outcomes for the Poor in Health, Nutrition, and Population : An Evaluation of World Bank Group Support since 1997

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009) Independent Evaluation Group

This evaluation aims to inform the implementation of the most recent the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) health, nutrition, and population (HNP) strategies to enhance the effectiveness of future support. It covers the period since fiscal year 1997 and is based on desk reviews of the portfolio, background studies, and field visits. The evaluation of the HNP support of the World Bank focuses on the effectiveness of policy dialogue, analytic work, and lending at the country level, while that of IFC focuses on the performance of health investments and advisory services before and after its 2002 health strategy. The themes it covers are drawn from the two strategies and the approaches adopted by international donors in the past decade. Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) has previously evaluated several aspects of the Bank's HNP support. IFC's support for the health sector has never been fully evaluated. Many lessons have been learned over the past decade about the successes and pitfalls of support for health reform: First, the failure to assess fully the political economy of reform and to prepare a proactive plan to address it can considerably diminish prospects for success. Political risks, the interests of key stakeholders, and the risk of complexity- issues the evaluation case studies found to be critical are often neglected in risk analysis in project appraisal documents for health reform projects. Second, reforms based on careful prior analytic work hold a greater chance of success, but analytic work does not ensure success. Third, the sequencing of reforms can improve political feasibility, reduce complexity, ensure that adequate capacity is in place, and facilitate learning. When implementation is flagging, the Bank can help preserve reform momentum with complementary programmatic lending through the Ministry of Finance, as it did in Peru and the Kyrgyz Republic. Finally, monitoring and evaluation are critical in health reform projects-to demonstrate the impact of pilot reforms to garner political support, but also because many reforms cannot work without a well-functioning management information system.
Improving Municipal Management for Cities to Succeed : An IEG Special Study

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009) Independent Evaluation Group

The purpose of this Independence Evaluation Group (IEG) special study is to illuminate the scale and scope of Bank support for municipal development and to draw specific lessons from the achievements and failures of a sample of individual projects. The study focuses on three dimensions of municipal management: planning, finance, and service provision that figure repeatedly in Bank financed municipal development projects (MDPs). The planning dimension refers to the capacity of a municipality to forecast and oversee its own progress. It includes information systems, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), city planning, and investment strategies. The finance dimension refers to how a municipality manages the resources needed to provide services to its constituents. It covers financial management, own-resource mobilization, access to credit, and private funding. The service provision dimension refers to the capacity of a municipality to manage the services required by city residents and business people through the effective prioritization of investments, management of competitive procurement, and the ability to sustain services through operations and maintenance (O&M).