Publication: Economies in Transition : An OED Evaluation of World Bank Assistance
Date
2004-09
ISSN
Published
2004-09
Author(s)
Operations Evaluation Department
Abstract
Since 1989 the transition countries of
Europe and Central Asia (ECA) have undertaken massive
reforms of their economic systems, transforming
institutions, processes, attitudes, and fundamental concepts
of individual and organizational behavior. This report uses
the benefit of 20/20 hindsight to evaluate the World Bank
' s assistance to 26 countries in the ECA Region in the
hopes that the lessons that emerge will prove useful in
countries undergoing similar, if less extreme, transitions
in the future. It is a meta-evaluation, largely based on
previous evaluative reports, including Country Assistance
Evaluations, project assessments, and other OED and Bank
documents. A number of background papers were commissioned
for this study (see Annex B). Five thematic papers provide
much of the analysis for this report. Three country papers
prepared by consultants and former government officials
present the borrowers ' point of view; they are
supplemented by borrower comments on OED reports and by
client surveys carried out as part of a Bank wide program.
Additional material is provided by a review of the
literature on international assistance to the transition, a
paper on alternative policies for reform, and a description
of the privatization process in selected countries from the
point of view of a Bank insider. Section 1 of this report
reviews World Bank assistance to the transition economies
and some of the evaluative evidence on its outcome. Five
themes were chosen for fuller review, taking into account
their relative importance in the Bank ' s lending
program, their relevance to the main goals of transition,
and their potential for yielding useful lessons: private
sector development; governance, public sector management,
and institution building; the financial sector; social
protection; and energy. Section 2 summarizes the findings of
these reviews. Section 3 presents the lessons and
recommendations that emerge.
Citation
“Operations Evaluation Department. 2004. Economies in Transition : An OED Evaluation of World Bank Assistance. © Washington, DC: World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14885 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”