Publication: 2003 Annual Review of Development Effectiveness : The Effectiveness of Bank Support for Policy Reform
Loading...
Date
2004
ISSN
Published
2004
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The Annual Review of Development Effectiveness (ARDE) 2003, examines the effectiveness of Bank support to borrower countries, in particular, the help to foster reform policies, and institutional frameworks. The Review focuses primarily, although not exclusively, on the years from 1999 through 2003. This is done to facilitate the juxtaposition of recent evaluation evidence with trends in policy indicators. Recent trends in developing countries ' policies suggest that the various dimensions of policy, and institutional performance have, on average, improved modestly, although recent reforms have touched most areas of development policy. In most countries that accomplished strong reform over the period 1999-2003, change was driven by necessity, or opportunities such as transition from socialism, economic crisis, European Union accession, and change of government. Development research suggests that such factors tend to galvanize support for change, and thus make the politics of policy reform easier. Countries whose policies improved over the period 1999-03, grew on average, at more than twice the rate of those that did not. Evaluation evidence links Bank support to recent improvements in policy. At the project level, good country policy ratings tend to be associated with good evaluation ratings on project outcomes. The Bank was less successful in linking its support to policy reform, in countries with no, or weak track records, or with deteriorating policy environments. The uncertainties associated with policy reform are reduced, when the Bank ' s support is aligned with country priorities that have been validated through country-led, inclusive political processes. A start has been made through the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP) process. However, the PRSP ' s potential as a vehicle for fostering country ownership is undermined, according to some borrowing countries, by its role as condition for access to external financial assistance. And, in countries where recent outcomes of Bank assistance were evaluated as satisfactory, high quality, relevant, and timely, Economic and Sector Work (ESW) generally made a substantial contribution. Therefore , it is suggested the Bank should not normally engage in lending, before ESW has established a base of county and sector knowledge.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Operations Evaluation Department. 2004. 2003 Annual Review of Development Effectiveness : The Effectiveness of Bank Support for Policy Reform. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14925 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication 2000 Annual Review of Development Effectiveness : From Strategy to Results(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001-03)This Annual Review of Development Effectiveness (ARDE) builds on previous reviews, i.e., the 1998 review, released in a hostile environment of financial crisis, concluded that improvements in project performance cannot be enough, that improvements at a higher plane of program, and country performance should also be present; and, the 1999 review, inscribed within the Comprehensive Development Framework dilemmas, and challenges, identified practices for dealing with those challenges, namely to be based on country commitments to poverty reduction, and sustainable growth. The ARDE 2000 finds that progress was solid on a broad front, but that further progress is likely. Portfolio performance is likely to exceed the Strategic Compact target of seventy five percent satisfactory outcomes; and, sustainability, and institutional development ratings reflect improvements. Though progress is commendable, this review examines four tensions the Bank faces: learning to reconcile client, and corporate priorities; adapting global prescriptions to local conditions; balancing country performance and poverty incidence in allocating its resources; and, achieving efficiency/selectivity, seeking to implement a holistic vision of development. Bank strategies should acknowledge client needs, judicious adaptation to institutional, social, and political fronts should be pursued, and, an approach to poor-performing countries should be addressed.Publication Analyzing the Effects of Policy Reforms on the Poor : An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of World Bank Support to Poverty and Social Impact Analyses(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2010)The current global financial and economic crises are likely to put enormous pressure on governments to respond with immediate measures and to undertake far-reaching reforms in the medium term, requiring a substantial increase in donor support. To protect the poor and enhance benefits to them, key policy reforms will need to be underpinned by systematic analysis of their expected poverty and social impacts. The World Bank's experience to date with the Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) approach provides useful lessons for addressing these issues. Overall, implementation of the PSIA approach has had considerable limitations. There have been tensions between the various operational objectives assigned to PSIAs. The tensions concern inconsistencies between informing country and Bank policy decisions in a timely way and building country analytic capacity. PSIAs have had limited ownership by Bank staff and managers and have often not been effectively integrated into country assistance programs. Quality assurance, monitoring, and evaluation of the overall effectiveness of PSIAs have been weak. To improve PSIAs' effectiveness, this evaluation recommends that the Bank take measures to ensure that staff fully understands what the PSIA approach is and when to use it, clarify the operational objectives of each PSIA, and ensure that the approach and timeline adopted are aligned with those objectives. Quality assurance mechanisms should be strengthened to ensure that PSIAs are designed to achieve the intended effects.Publication 2004 Annual Review of Development Effectiveness : The World Bank's Contributions to Poverty Reduction(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005)This 2004 Annual Review of Development Effectiveness (ARDE): The World Bank's Contributions to Poverty Reduction, looks at the growth and poverty reduction experience of client countries. It assesses the extent to which Bank interventions have contributed to growth and poverty reduction and the effectiveness of different types of interventions. The review uses the key elements of the Bank's 2001 poverty reduction strategy to examine the extent to which these elements respond to the needs of the poor, are actually being carried out, and are having an impact. Like previous ARDEs, this review draws primarily on OED's recent evaluation studies, synthesizing and highlighting the findings of these studies around a common theme-in this case, poverty reduction.Publication The Effectiveness of World Bank Support for Community-Based and -Driven Development(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005)This report analyzes the effectiveness of the World Bank's lending support for the growing area of community-based development (CBD) and community-driven development (CDD). The latter supports the empowerment of the poor by giving communities control over subproject resources and decisions, while CBD gives communities less responsibility and emphasizes collaboration, consultation, or sharing information with them on project activities. Since the late 1990s, the focus of Bank-supported CBD/CDD projects has shifted toward CDD, though many CDD projects also include CBD components.Publication The Poverty Reduction Strategy Initiative : Findings from 10 Country Case Studies of World Bank and IMF Support(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005-01-01)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.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Business Ready 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03)Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.Publication Doing Business 2014 : Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises(Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2013-10-28)Eleventh in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 185 economies, Doing Business 2014 measures regulations affecting 11 areas of everyday business activity: Starting a business, Dealing with construction permits, Getting electricity, Registering property, Getting credit, Protecting investors, Paying taxes, Trading across borders, Enforcing contracts, Closing a business, Employing workers. The report updates all indicators as of June 1, 2013, ranks economies on their overall “ease of doing business”, and analyzes reforms to business regulation – identifying which economies are strengthening their business environment the most. The Doing Business reports illustrate how reforms in business regulations are being used to analyze economic outcomes for domestic entrepreneurs and for the wider economy. Doing Business is a flagship product by the World Bank and IFC that garners worldwide attention on regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship. More than 60 economies use the Doing Business indicators to shape reform agendas and monitor improvements on the ground. In addition, the Doing Business data has generated over 870 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals since its inception.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Fall 2024: Better Education for Stronger Growth(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-17)Economic growth in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) is likely to moderate from 3.5 percent in 2023 to 3.3 percent this year. This is significantly weaker than the 4.1 percent average growth in 2000-19. Growth this year is driven by expansionary fiscal policies and strong private consumption. External demand is less favorable because of weak economic expansion in major trading partners, like the European Union. Growth is likely to slow further in 2025, mostly because of the easing of expansion in the Russian Federation and Turkiye. This Europe and Central Asia Economic Update calls for a major overhaul of education systems across the region, particularly higher education, to unleash the talent needed to reinvigorate growth and boost convergence with high-income countries. Universities in the region suffer from poor management, outdated curricula, and inadequate funding and infrastructure. A mismatch between graduates' skills and the skills employers are seeking leads to wasted potential and contributes to the region's brain drain. Reversing the decline in the quality of education will require prioritizing improvements in teacher training, updated curricula, and investment in educational infrastructure. In higher education, reforms are needed to consolidate university systems, integrate them with research centers, and provide reskilling opportunities for adult workers.