Publication: World Bank Group Support for Innovation and Entrepreneurship : An Independent Evaluation
Date
2013-09
ISSN
Published
2013-09
Author(s)
Independent Evaluation Group
Abstract
World Bank Group management welcomes
Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) review of innovation and
entrepreneurship. The global financial crisis required
developing economies to actively seek new sources of
economic growth. Natural resource-intensive economies are
pursuing new ways to diversify their productive capacity to
build resilience to commodity cycles. Middle-income
countries (MICs) are looking for ways to escape the
middle-income trap. A number of developmental challenges,
from climate adaptation to food security and health, require
new, efficient technological solutions adapted to developing
countries' needs. In such context, innovation and
entrepreneurship are increasingly seen as essential
ingredients for economic and social prosperity. The report
notes there are limited mechanisms in place to share
learning about innovation and entrepreneurship and few
formal efforts to improve coordination. However, important
initiatives are already under way to foster learning, cross
fertilization, and codification of knowledge to support
innovation policy. The innovation, technology, and
entrepreneurship (ITE) global practice, for example, brings
together innovation and entrepreneurship specialists across
the Bank Group in knowledge exchange forums and other
learning activities. The innovation policy platform (IPP),
under advanced development, will provide a repository of
knowledge on the "how to" of innovation policy and
a collaborative space for users to exchange knowledge. The
report recognizes that venture capital investments typically
have high rates of failure in which only one or two
investments earn high returns for every ten investments
made. It states further that market practice assesses a
fund's performance on a portfolio basis against its
peers of the same vintage, not on a stand-alone basis. The
positive effects on private sector development of
International Finance Corporation (IFC) investments in
venture capital funds confirm that this type of financing
can be an important mechanism for fostering innovation,
entrepreneurship, and growth of private enterprises. The
report states that Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
(MIGA) support helped jump-start private sector foreign
direct investment in post conflict situations in Mozambique
and Nicaragua. The report concludes that the effectiveness
of MIGA's interventions to support innovation and
entrepreneurship will be enhanced with improvements in the
quality of its front-end work in assessment, underwriting,
and monitoring. This report is organized as follows: chapter
one presents evaluation context; chapter two gives
strategies to support innovation and entrepreneurship; and
chapter three deals with supporting innovation and
entrepreneurship in World Bank Group projects; chapter four
presents portfolio performance of World Bank Group support
for innovation and entrepreneurship; chapter five gives
learning from World Bank Group interventions; and chapter
six gives conclusions and recommendations.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Independent Evaluation Group. 2013. World Bank Group Support for Innovation and Entrepreneurship : An Independent Evaluation. © World Bank Group, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16665 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”