World Bank launches major evaluation report on Global Programs and Partnerships

The World Bank’s Operations Evaluation Department (OED), the independent evaluation office within the World Bank, has released its report on The World Bank’s Approach to Global Programs and Partnerships. This report titled Addressing the Challenges of Globalization completes OED’s evaluation of the Bank’s involvement in global programs. Based on lessons derived from studies of 26 of the Bank supported 70 global programs and partnerships the report looks across these cases to draw cross-cutting lessons about the design, implementation and evaluation of global programs and partnerships.

Global programs and partnerships are an important and growing line of business for the World Bank. The Bank manages by far the largest stock of trust funds among international organizations — $7.1 billion at the end of FY04, of which 64 percent were committed for global and regional programs. The 26 programs reviewed as part of OED’s global evaluation were representative of — and included 90 percent of the annual expenditures of — the 70 Bank-supported global programs and partnerships in FY02.

GPPi Director Wolfgang Reinicke served as one of four Advisory Committee members to the evaluation study. Over the course of the past three years, Wolfgang provided substantive input and direction to the work of the OED evaluation team. Together with the other members of the Advisory Committee members, Wolfgang also produced a report that provides an outsider´s perspective to the study.

The report was launched during a conference held on April 14. Reinicke and GPPi Associate Director Jan Martin Witte attended the launch conference as well as a small workshop designed to carve out a future action agenda for the bank.