World Bank Group Country Engagement : An Early-Stage Assessment of the Systematic Country Diagnostic and Country Partnership Framework Process and Implementation

The World Bank Group's new country engagement model consists of two separate but connected instruments: the Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) and the Country Partnership Framework (CPF). The SCD assesses the constraints and the steps a country needs to take to achieve the twin goals of poverty reduction and shared prosperity, and the CPF is the Bank Group's program of support to the borrowing country, typically over a five-year period. This evaluation found that the new SCD instrument has been well received, including by governments and development partners. The SCDs were strong in identification of opportunities for economic growth, but there were weaknesses in the dissemination of the reports, and a clear approach to governance was missing in some SCDs. The CPFs build on the country analysis in the SCDs, but aligning new program priorities has proven challenging, and there have also been weaknesses in how identified data gaps will be addressed. The identification of indicators for the results frameworks has been a strong point. The integration of IFC and MIGA into the CPF process has improved significantly, although some budget transparency issues remain. The expected areas of concentration for IFC and MIGA could be highlighted better in the results frameworks