Resource information
The 2008 World Bank project performance
data shows improvement in achieving development outcomes,
allaying concerns that the weakened 2007 performance could
signal a new downward trend. The decline in performance in
2007 was modest, and it has rebounded in 2008. Bank
performance is rated on a six-point scale, from highly
satisfactory to highly unsatisfactory. The percentage of
satisfactory projects increased in 2008, continuing a steady
upward trend over the past 15 years. Analysis of the dates
of the major turnarounds in project performance suggests
that a combination of better Bank sector policies and
improved country circumstances outside of Bank control may
explain much of the turnaround, rather than internal
administrative reforms at the Bank, although the latter may
have facilitated improvement already underway. The 2009
Management Action Record (MAR) tracks Bank adoption of
recent Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) recommendations
and shows that adoption levels are declining. IEG is
currently examining ways to improve the MAR to create a more
effective product for tracking implementation of
recommendations and identify reasons for the trend decline.
Although part of this may be attributed to the shifting
nature of development assistance, not all of it is. An
assessment of the use of cost-benefit tools in environmental
projects largely confirms this conclusion. This issue will
be taken up in greater detail in an IEG special report in FY2010.
