IEG Independent Evaluation Group

WORLD BANK IFC MIGA

Evaluation for better results

What is the Independent Evaluation Group? IEG, an independent unit within the World Bank Group, evaluates the relevance and impact of the Bank Group’s support to developing countries for reducing poverty and improving people’s lives in sustainable ways. The goals of evaluation are to contribute an objective basis for assessing results, to provide accountability in the achievement of development objectives, and to help learn from experience. IEG’s findings and recommendations are built on its independent evaluations of strategies, projects, programs, and corporate activities of the World Bank Group, including the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association, the International Finance Corporation, and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.

Learning, Independence, and TransparencyDevelopment is about improving people’s lives. Evaluations play an important role in highlighting development results. At the core of IEG’s mission is the issue of how best to enhance the impact of the development support provided by the lending and advisory services of the World Bank Group.

With its accumulated knowledge of successes and failures at the project, sector, country, corporate and global levels, IEG is well positioned to share knowledge and promote learning across the World Bank Group and the international development community. Internal and external audiences value IEG evaluations as they contribute to the debate on development effectiveness and provide lessons for the work of development partners.

IEG’s program and budget are approved by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors and it reports its findings directly to the Board. IEG evaluates the World Bank Group’s achievements as well as shortcomings and sets out lessons and recommendations to strengthen development effectiveness. The evaluation findings are shared with the public under Board-approved disclosure policies.

“ The current development environment is one where showing results really matters.”

Vinod Thomas, Director-General, Independent Evaluation Group

World Bank GroupMultilateral Investment Guarantee Agency

Organization The Director-General Evaluation oversees the work of three units: IEG-World Bank evaluates IBRD and IDA support to countries’ overall development; IEG-IFC evaluates Bank Group activities that focus on contributions to private sector development and on strengthening the business climate; and IEG-MIGA evaluates the impact of Bank Group political risk guarantees and technical assistance aimed at improving foreign direct investment to developing countries. These three units, under the overall guidance of the Director-General, disseminate their findings with the aim of enhancing the Bank Group’s development effectiveness. The Director-General also works closely with development partners to foster international evaluation harmonization, strengthen evaluation capacity in developing countries, and encourage evaluations of the international development system.

IEG-World Bank Annual Review of Development Effectiveness synthesizes recent evaluation findings, identifies themes, and draws lessons to improve the World Bank’s contributions to effective development.

The Biennial Report on Operations Evaluation reviews the progress, status, and prospects for monitoring and evaluating the development effectiveness of World Bank activities and examines how effectively evaluation findings are used to improve results and enhance accountability.

Country Assistance Evaluations examine the performance of programs and projects in a particular country, usually over the past 10 years, against the objectives laid out in the Bank’s Country Assistance Strategy and the country’s own development priorities.

Sector and Thematic Reviews examine performance and experience in a specific sector (such as agriculture, transportation, or education) or thematic area (poverty, gender, and so forth) over 5–10 years. These reviews report on how performance conforms to the World Bank’s policy and practice, as well as on the development effectiveness of the Bank’s activities.

Global and Regional Program Reviews provide an independent assessment of program achievements in areas such as environment, health, or infrastructure. Currently, the Bank, typically in concert with other partners, is involved in about 110 global and 60 regional programs, which together disbursed around $3 billion in fiscal year 2005.

IEG-IFC The Independent Evaluation of IFC’s Development Results reports on the development outcomes of IFC’s investment and technical assistance operations across the world, and draws out lessons that help provide the basis for better IFC results in the future. Such lessons include the positive influence of an improving business climate on IFC development success rates.

The Biennial Report on Operations Evaluation reviews the adequacy, coverage, and quality of evaluation processes within IFC and examines how effectively evaluation findings are used to enhance results and increase accountability.

Thematic, Country, and Sector Studies analyze broad themes and trends related to IFC’s performance and the lessons of its experience. The studies provide hard data that manage-

ment and the Board can use to assess past performance and to help develop corporate, sector, and country strategies and priorities.

Evaluation Briefs are either short, free-standing evaluations or extracts from longer evaluations. These briefs synthesize findings from IFC’s operations in a specific sector or country. They are distributed widely to promote learning and sharing of best practices.

IEG-MIGA The Annual Report presents the findings of evaluations of MIGA guarantee projects and technical assistance activities. It informs the Board of Directors, management and staff, and other stakeholders on MIGA’s performance relative to its development mandate. The report also covers aspects of quality assurance in selecting, underwriting, and monitoring projects.

IEG-MIGA contributes to country, thematic, and sector studies done by the other two evaluation units, focusing on areas relevant to MIGA. Recent examples include evaluations of World Bank Group investment climate activities and assistance to extractive industries.

Key IEG Products

Partnerships and CollaborationIEG and Evaluation Capacity Development

The development community places a high premium on results achievement and development effectiveness and is committed to helping borrower countries strengthen their ability to measure and manage for results. An important part of this effort is to help countries build their own monitoring and evaluation systems. With such systems, governments and their development partners are able to prepare better national budgets and plans, manage their activities, and improve service delivery. These systems also help strengthen government accountability to civil society. Such capacity building is known in the international development community as Evaluation Capacity Development. IEG has been a strong advocate of such capacity development, and it is a part of IEG’s mandate. IEG provides capacity development advice and other support to countries and to operational areas within the Bank. For more information: www.worldbank.org/ieg/ecd

The International Program for Development Evaluation Training is an annual training program organized by IEG in partnership with Carleton University’s Faculty of Public Affairs and Management (Ottawa, Canada). This four-week program is designed to help senior and mid-level evaluation and audit professionals conduct meaningful evaluations of development interventions. Participants come from government agencies, bilateral and multilateral development agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector. For more information: www.ipdet.org

Contact IEG IEG-World Bank World Bank1818 H Street, NW, MSN H3-305Washington, DC 20433Tel.: 202-458-4497Fax: 202-522-3125E-mail: ieg@worldbank.org www.worldbank.org/ieg

IEG-IFC International Finance Corporation2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, MSN F4K-405Washington, DC 20433Tel.: 202-458-2299Fax: 202-974-4302E-mail: askieg@ifc.org www.ifc.org/ieg

IEG-MIGAMultilateral Investment Guarantee Agency1818 H Street, NW; MSN U12-1206Washington, DC 20433Tel.: 202-458-5830Fax: 202-522-3525E-mail: migaevaluations@worldbank.org www.miga.org/ieg

World Bank GroupMultilateral Investment Guarantee Agency

IEG Independent Evaluation Group