This IEG evaluation brings a fresh perspective to the debate by assessing the development effectiveness of the Bank's recent work. It presents evidence -- including views from the client countries themselves -- about the outcomes of the Bank's support to individual countries over the past 12...

This study assesses the development effectiveness of World Bank assistance in addressing constraints to agricultural development in Africa over the period of fiscal years 1991-2006. This Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) review of World Bank assistance to agriculture in Africa has a twofold...

This report analyzes the Bank's assistance to support pension reform to determine if the Bank's strategy was relevant and if it was followed. The evaluation assesses whether pension reform decisions reflected best practice guidelines at entry, and whether Bank-assisted reforms achieved their...

This evaluation presents an independent assessment of the Bank's support for financial sector reforms over the period FY93-03. It is the second part of a two-part evaluation; the first part of the assessment covered lines of credit. This volume focuses on Bank lending for financial sector...

The World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group examined the World Bank's experience in disaster prevention and response over the past 20 years and found that the scale of Bank operations has grown over the period. The report found that the Bank has demonstrated considerable flexibility in its...

This report is a synthesis of three evaluations carried out by the Independent Evaluation Group and completed between July 2005 and February 2006, on different aspects of Bank assistance to financial sector development in client countries. The three evaluation reports are World Bank Lending for...

This study evaluates progress under the HIPC initiative since the 2003 evaluation of the Independent Evaluation Group. It finds that the Enhanced HIPC initiative (the Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) cut debt ratios in half for 18 countries, but in eight of these countries, the...

This evaluation provides an independent assessment of lines of credit financed by the World Bank during the period FY93-FY03. It is the first of a two-part evaluation looking at Bank support to the financial sector. The second part focuses on Bank support for financial sector reform. This volume...

The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) prepared this synthesis note as an input to the ongoing process surrounding the international agenda for Small States. Its purpose is to provide a perspective on some of the issues small states face through a review of World Bank experience with country and...

Home to almost 500 million people, roughly half of whom earn less than a dollar a day, fragile states, until recently known in the World Bank as Low-Income Countries Under Stress (LICUS), have attracted increasing attention. The Bank identified 25 such countries in fiscal 2005 based on their...