Publication: The World Bank Group’s Early Support to Addressing the COVID-19 Economic Response, April 2020 - June 2021: An Early-Stage Evaluation
Date
2023
ISSN
Published
2023
Author(s)
World Bank
Independent Evaluation Group
Abstract
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.
Citation
“World Bank; Independent Evaluation Group. 2023. The World Bank Group’s Early Support to Addressing the COVID-19 Economic Response, April 2020 - June 2021: An Early-Stage Evaluation. © Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/38514 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”