The '2008 Annual Review of Development Effectiveness', an independent evaluation, presents evidence on the Bank's efforts in two important and connected areas: tracking outcomes of Bank projects andprograms; and progress in fostering global public goods.

The World Bank has committed itself to becoming a 'global knowledge bank', using knowledge to improve the development effectiveness of its work. Two of the analytical and advisory ways the Bank provides knowledge to its client countries are economic and sector work (ESW) and nonlending technical assistance (TA). ESW and TA are an essential part of the Bank's engagement with its clients it spent $910 million (26% of its spending on country services) on these products during fiscal 2000-06. This evaluation assesses the extent to which the stated objectives of ESW and TA have been met. It also...

"Kenneth Chomitz was the evaluation manager and main author for this study"--P. xiii.

Foreign direct investment and private capital flows are highly concentrated geographically, with almost half of them reaching five top destinations. These flows tend to evade many high-risk countries. Regulatory and contractual risks, particularly in infrastructure, have inhibited investments in many parts of the developing world. A core objective of the World Bank Group (WBG) has been to support the flow of private investment for development; guarantees and insurance have been among the instruments that the WBG has used to pursue this objective. This study examines three main questions:...

This report reviews World Bank support to Egypt from fiscal 1999 through fiscal 2007. It analyzes the objectives and content of the Bank s assistance program during this period. The Bank s assistance program largely met its objectives and contributed significantly to policy and institutional changes, especially in the financial sector, privatization, pension system, and private sector development. From FY99 to FY07, the Bank committed just $2.1 billion for 18 investment projects and one policy-based loan. Bank analytical work has helped in the design of recent economic reforms and in...

This study evaluates the effectiveness of the World Bank Group s support for health, nutrition, and population (HNP) in developing countries from 1997 to 2008 totaling more than $17 billion and distills lessons for greater impact in the future. It finds that the Bank Group now funds a smaller share of global support for HNP than a decade ago, but its support remains substantial and adds considerable value. About two-thirds of the Bank s HNP support has had satisfactory outcomes, often in difficult environments. But in a number of country settings, particularly in Africa, it has not performed...

'The Annual Review of Development Effectiveness 2009' presents evidence on the World Bank s efforts in two areas. Part I tracks the outcomes of Bank projects and country programs and the evolution of monitoring and evaluation (M and E). Part II examines the Bank s support for environmentally sustainable development compatible with economic growth and poverty reduction. The Bank s project performance rebounded in 2008, allaying concerns about the weakened performance in 2007. As previous ARDEs have shown, project performance has been improving gradually for 15 years according to the...

This report is a pilot cross-country study that summarizes 10 years (1998-2008) of the World Bank s engagement at the state level in selected large federal countries and combines elements of a country assistance evaluation and a thematic review. It looks at several strategic and operational questions posed by state-level engagement, among them the selection of states, the scope, and the modalities of engagement. According to the report, two tendencies often in tension featured in most approaches for selection of states for direct engagement. One was to support better-performing, reformist...

The evaluation finds that the content of the World Bank's Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) is largely relevant for growth and poverty reduction in the sense that it maps well with the determinants of growth and poverty reduction identified in the economics literature. However, some CPIA criteria need to be revised (in particular trade and finance), and one needs to be added (assessment of disadvantaged socio-economic groups). Second, the evaluation finds that the CPIA ratings are in general reliable and correlate well with similar indicators. The World Bank's internal review...

This Peru Country Program Evaluation for the World Bank Group, 2003-2009 is part of IEG's country program evaluation series. To date, IEG's in-depth country evaluations have comprised IEG-WB Country Assistance Evaluations (CAEs) and IEG-IFC Country Impact Reviews (CIRs). Both the CAEs and CIRs have involved comprehensive evaluations of the respective institutions' activities in a country. In a pilot approach, this evaluation was prepared by a single IEG team that looked at development interventions across the three WBG institutions. The evaluation draws on WBG documents, external literature,...