Publication: An Evaluation of World Bank Group Support to Jobs and Labor Market Reform through International Development Association Financing (Approach Paper, March 2, 2023)
Date
2023-03-22
ISSN
Published
2023-03-22
Author(s)
World Bank
Independent Evaluation Group
Abstract
The International Development
Association (IDA) has included jobs as a special theme since
the 17th Replenishment of IDA (IDA17) in 2014, when it
explicitly recognized the role played by labor markets in
intermediating between growth and inclusion. This
acknowledgment of jobs marked a shift in IDA’s inclusive
growth strategy. Before the IDA17 strategy paper, IDA
emphasized growth and the use of social safety nets to
mitigate the effects of poverty. Beginning in 2014, however,
jobs became more central to IDA’s strategy for inclusive
growth and for achieving the twin goals. IDA17, the 18th
Replenishment of IDA, and the 19th Replenishment of IDA
established specific policy commitments and results
indicators under the jobs-related special theme. At the same
time, the World Bank Group expanded and deepened its
attention to jobs, resulting in an increasingly
multidimensional jobs agenda characterized by a growing body
of lending, technical assistance and diagnostics, and a
strong focus on IDA-eligible countries, including through
use of the Country Private Sector Diagnostic and IDA’s
private sector window. This evaluation will assess IDA’s
support for jobs-related objectives over fiscal years
(FY)14–22, the period covering three IDA replenishments
during which jobs became an IDA special theme (IDA17, the
18th Replenishment of IDA, and the 19th Replenishment of
IDA). The objectives of this assessment are to interrogate
the contribution of IDA’s Bank Group financing to improving
outcomes related to more, better paying, and more inclusive
jobs; the role of IDA’s jobs strategy at the corporate,
country, and operational levels in this context; and the
analytical underpinnings of jobs-related interventions. The
evaluation will provide lessons and recommendations to
inform the design of the Bank Group’s future
multidimensional jobs support and enhance IDA’s
effectiveness in this space based on eight years of
strategic, diagnostic, and operational experience.
Citation
“World Bank; Independent Evaluation Group. 2023. An Evaluation of World Bank Group Support to Jobs and Labor Market Reform through International Development Association Financing (Approach Paper, March 2, 2023). © Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39571 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”