Identification of Institutional Factors in Bank Operations: Flexibility v. Early Detection: Case Studies in the Citizen Security and Transparency Sub-Sectors

The study seeks to survey the prevalence of institutional factors posing risks or vulnerabilities to selected Bank operations and the time at, and mechanisms through which these are addressed. As a first study, it focuses on two sub-sectors of the Reform and Modernization of the State sector: Citizen Security and Transparency and Anti-Corruption. The study unfolds in three segments: 1) to identify institutional factors and their impact on sub-sector operations through document review, interviews and other Bank information sources; 2) pointing to existing Bank approaches of addressing institutional factors and suggesting new considerations for their dealing in light of the analysis of survey results, as might be the false dichotomy of early identification v. flexibility; and 3) to cross-check the study's findings on the presence of institutional factors with those yielded by the Matrix of Institutional Factors (MAFI) developed for ICF/ICS, as to assess its effectiveness in factor identification. The main conclusion of the study is that both flexibility and implementation are important elements in project design, at least in the sub-sectors studied.