This paper, based on a recent OED review of World Bank social fund projects, presents findings relating to two aspects of social fund performance that have been relatively under-researched in the social funds literature-the sustainability of benefits and the institutional development impacts. On...

Since 1987 the Bank's operational guidelines have required President's Reports supporting structural adjustment loans (SALs) to pay particular attention to an analysis of the short term impact of the adjustment program on the poor and to measures proposed to alleviate negative effects. The...

This is the sixth Annual Review of Development Effectiveness (ARDE), covering the year 2002. its findings indicate that the Bank's country, sector, and global programs are consistent with the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) themes, increasingly focused on poverty reduction. The review...

Modelling is an approach to impact evaluation which uses mathematical models to describe social and economic relationships and to infer causality from an intervention to an outcome, and/or between an outcome and its determinants. Models with more than one equation are most valuable, as they...

Quasi-experimental research designs, like experimental designs, test causal hypotheses. Quasi-experimental designs identify a comparison group that is as similar as possible to the intervention group in terms of baseline (pre-intervention) characteristics. The comparison group captures what...

A randomized controlled trial (RCT) is an experimental form of impact evaluation in which the population receiving the programme or policy intervention is chosen at random from the eligible population, and a control group is also chosen at random from the same eligible population. It tests the...

Indicators provide a signal to decision makers by indicating whether, and to what extent, a variable of interest has changed. They can be used at all levels of the results framework from inputs to impacts, and should be linked to the programme’s theory of change. Most important at the lower...

The World Bank report Assessing Aid assumes that aid is more effective when it is given to countries where polices are sound. Moreover, it assumes that an inflow of aid, above a certain level, starts to have negative effects. In this paper we empirically test both assumptions. We do not find...