For the World Bank and its partners, the ever-present test is to deliver results—to lift people out of poverty and promote socially and environmentally sustainable development. Achieving such success in any individual country is increasingly intertwined with making progress on shared global challenges.

A fair and efficient international trade regime, for example, is a global public good that allows developing countries to trade more and grow faster. The increasing global threat of climate change—a “public bad,” by contrast— particularly imperils the poor, who bear the brunt of more frequent natural disasters and hazards to health and agriculture.

This year’s Annual Review of Development Effectiveness is in a new format and presents evidence on the Bank’s efforts in two important and connected areas. Part I, which is a standard section of the new format, helps to track Bank performance, notably trends in outcomes of Bank projects and country programs, the evolution of monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and the role of evaluation in the results agenda.

Part II examines a special topic of great relevance to the results described in the first part: the Bank’s work in fostering global public goods, such as protecting the earth’s climate and preventing the spread of dangerous communicable diseases. Global public goods tend to be undersupplied, as are all public goods. Motivating local action is easier when the benefits are captured locally: efforts to stop the transborder spread of pandemic disease are more easily motivated when the results directly benefit local populations.

By contrast, reducing greenhouse gas emissions is harder to motivate because of a lack of perceived local benefits, particularly in the near term. The report examines both situations, but it is the latter— where global and local benefits diverge—in which the challenges are greatest and the role of the Bank is potentially pathbreaking.

Development outcomes from Bank lending have improved over the medium term, mostly through a rise in the share of projects rated as moderately satisfactory in meeting their objectives. Achievements of country programs in meeting their objectives—typically including growth, poverty reduction, and environmental sustainability—have been moderately satisfactory or better in three-fifths of cases, including in several large countries, home to the majority of the world’s poor. But too many other programs, particularly in impoverished countries, have been moderately unsatisfactory or worse.

The Bank’s overall approach to M&E has many strengths, including recent progress in updating its policies on lending and country strategies to emphasize M&E. Yet significant overoptimism in the Bank’s self-assessment of ongoing project performance and weaknesses in the use of M&E systems are of concern. The quality of project M&E is often quite low, and results frameworks in country assistance strategies need clearer and simpler articulation with baseline indicators if they are to be effective as management tools. ...

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©2008 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank
1818 H Street NW
Washington, DC 20433
Telephone: 202-473-1000
Internet: www.worldbank.org

ISSN: 1520-9733
ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-7714-7
e-ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-7716-1

THE WORLD BANK GROUP
WORKING FOR A WORLD FREE OF POVERTY

The World Bank Group consists of five institutions—the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the International Development Association (IDA), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment
Disputes (ICSID). Its mission is to fight poverty for lasting results and to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity, and forging partnerships in the public and private sectors.

THE INDEPENDENT EVALUATION GROUP
ENHANCING DEVELOPMENT EFFECTIVENESS THROUGH EXCELLENCE AND INDEPENDENCE IN EVALUATION

The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) is an independent, three-part unit within the World Bank Group.

IEG-World Bank is charged with evaluating the activities of the IBRD (The World Bank) and IDA, IEG-IFC focuses on assessment of IFC’s work toward private sector development, and IEG-MIGA evaluates the contributions of MIGA guarantee projects and services. IEG reports directly to the Bank’s Board of Directors through the Director-General, Evaluation.

The goals of evaluation are to learn from experience, to provide an objective basis for assessing the results of the Bank Group’s work, and to provide accountability in the achievement of its objectives. It also improves Bank Group work by identifying and disseminating the lessons learned from experience and by framing recommendations drawn from evaluation findings.

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