Publication:
Promoting Environmental Sustainability in Development : An Evaluation of the World Bank's Performance

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (82.58 MB)
248 downloads
English Text (214.98 KB)
97 downloads
Date
2002-01
ISSN
Published
2002-01
Abstract
Substantial improvement has been done by the Bank in its environmental performance since 1987. The Bank focused on the environment as a new area of activity, and it has sought to mitigate the negative environmental effects of its development interventions. The Bank's participation in the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, and the 1992 World Development Report on the environment, demonstrated the Bank's engagement, which helped launch many environmental activities. These efforts have produced commendable results, and promoted awareness in developing country governments, of the linkages between the environment, and development. This evaluation report finds that the Bank has made progress on environmental issues, but notes that its commitments have not been accompanied by precise goals, and performance monitoring. It advances explanations of why things have turned out this way, and offers recommendations that focus on how to restore the environment to its proper role, in the Bank's holistic, long-term development agenda.
Link to Data Set
Citation
Liebenthal, Andres. Liebenthal, Andres, editors. 2002. Promoting Environmental Sustainability in Development : An Evaluation of the World Bank's Performance. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13984 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Extractive Industries and Sustainable Development : An Evaluation of World Bank Group Experience
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005) Liebenthal, Andrés; Michelitsch, Roland; Tarazona, Ethel
    This evaluation finds that with its global mandate and experience, comprehensive country development focus, and overarching mission to fight poverty, the World Bank Group is well positioned to help countries overcome the policy, institutional, and technical challenges that prevent them from transforming resource endowments into sustainable benefits. Furthermore, the World Bank Group's achievements are many. On the whole, its extractive industries projects have produced positive economic and financial results, though compliance with its environmental and social safeguards remains a challenge. Its research has broadened and deepened understanding of the causes for the disappointing performance of resource-rich countries. Its guidelines for the mitigation of adverse environmental and social impacts have been widely used and appreciated. More recently, it has begun to address the challenge of country governance with a variety of instruments.
  • Publication
    Supporting Environmental Sustainability: An Evaluation of World Bank Group Experience, 1990-2007
    (Washington, DC, 2008-08) World Bank
    The Bank Group's lending and non-lending support for environmental sustainability has increased and improved over the past 15 years. But the institution needs to raise the priority it accords to this area of rising concern, strengthen internal cooperation, and work more effectively with its government and private partners to help countries to get better results in addressing environmental challenges. The Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) should jointly develop and commit to a new environmental strategy and ensure that environmental priorities enter fully into their strategic directions as well as in regional and country assistance programs, focusing in particular on underperforming regions and sectors and countries with the most significant environmental problems. The Bank Group should step up its support for public-private partnerships and take greater advantage of the private sector's potential for technology development and transfer, transformation toward clean and low-carbon technologies, and sustainable supply chains, while continuing to help countries strengthen environmental governance.
  • Publication
    OED Review of the Bank's Performance on the Environment
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001-07-05) Operations Evaluation Department
    This OED report finds that the Bank has made progress on the environment, and notes that its commitments were not accompanied by precise goals and performance monitoring. It advances explanations of why things have turned out this way. It offers recommendations which focus on how to restore the environment to its proper role in the Bank's holistic, long-term development agenda.
  • Publication
    Social and Environmental Assessment to Promote Sustainability : An Informal View from the World Bank
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000-01) Goodland, Robert
    This report compares the history of Environmental Assessment (EA) and Social Assessment (SA) in the World Bank, in order to draw "lessons learned" to improve development. The main need-to shift attention from the EA report to implementation on the ground-has been started recently (Goodland and Mercier 1999), so this paper focuses on process. The history of social and economic assessments shows how scarce social and natural capital is being converted to abundant economic capital. The EA and SA processes are examined to see the extent to which they could promote sustainability, the maintenance of capital. This means social and economic assessments can be used to prevent inadvertent consumption of natural and social capital. Following a historical section, there is a brief but more theoretical section on the substitutability between the four main forms of capital and their relevance to achieving the goal of sustainability by means of improved social and economic assessments.
  • Publication
    OPS3 - Progressing toward Environmental Results : Third Overall Performance Study on the GEF, Complete Report
    (Washington, DC: Global Environment Facility, 2005-06) Global Environment Facility
    The purpose of the Third Overall Performance Study (OPS3), commissioned by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council, is "to assess the extent to which GEF has achieved, or is on its way towards achieving its main objectives, as laid down in the GEF Instrument and subsequent decisions by the GEF Council and the Assembly, including key documents such as the Operational Strategy and the Policy Recommendations agreed as part of the Third Replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund." (GEF/C.23/4) The OPS3 team recognizes that this study is taking place at a critical time and will provide input that is relevant to the Fourth Replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund, which will be taking place shortly after the publication of the OPS3 study. A primary goal of OPS3 is to provide relevant, timely, and actionable recommendations for each of the Terms of Reference (TOR) areas to support the replenishment process and associated programming. The scope of OPS3 is defined by the "Terms of Reference for the Third Overall Performance Study approved by the GEF Council on May 21, 2004, and it covers five main themes : 1) Results of GEF activities. 2) Sustainability of results at the country level. 3) GEF as a catalytic institution. 4) GEF policies, institutional structure, and partnerships. 5) GEF implementation processes.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Business Ready 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03) World Bank
    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
    Unlocking Blue Carbon Development
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-11) World Bank
    The purpose of this paper is to provide a practical framework to guide governments in catalyzing and scaling up public and private investment in Blue Carbon as part of their blue economy development. It does this by describing in detail a Blue Carbon Readiness Framework, a step-by-step, well-illustrated guide with simple checklists. Client countries can use the illustrations and checklists to determine their readiness to catalyze and scale up investment in blue carbon credit finance. The Blue Carbon Readiness Framework consists of three pillars: 1. Data and Analytics; 2. Policy and Institutions; 3. Finance.
  • Publication
    Argentina Country Climate and Development Report
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank Group
    The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2011
    (World Bank, 2011) World Bank
    The 2011 World development report looks across disciplines and experiences drawn from around the world to offer some ideas and practical recommendations on how to move beyond conflict and fragility and secure development. The key messages are important for all countries-low, middle, and high income-as well as for regional and global institutions: first, institutional legitimacy is the key to stability. When state institutions do not adequately protect citizens, guard against corruption, or provide access to justice; when markets do not provide job opportunities; or when communities have lost social cohesion-the likelihood of violent conflict increases. Second, investing in citizen security, justice, and jobs is essential to reducing violence. But there are major structural gaps in our collective capabilities to support these areas. Third, confronting this challenge effectively means that institutions need to change. International agencies and partners from other countries must adapt procedures so they can respond with agility and speed, a longer-term perspective, and greater staying power. Fourth, need to adopt a layered approach. Some problems can be addressed at the country level, but others need to be addressed at a regional level, such as developing markets that integrate insecure areas and pooling resources for building capacity Fifth, in adopting these approaches, need to be aware that the global landscape is changing. Regional institutions and middle income countries are playing a larger role. This means should pay more attention to south-south and south-north exchanges, and to the recent transition experiences of middle income countries.
  • Publication
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    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.