ABSTRACT
Bank evaluations tend to examine things from a technical viewpoint, striving for objectivity, but development does not happen that way, especially not in areas relevant to poverty alleviation. Poverty is alleviated not through social services but through money. The banks really do not work at the political level, except to provide money and tell people what to do. The countries that perform the worst often get the cheapest money for the next loan. Multilateral development banks and countries have different incentives. Multilateral development banks have to get the money out, and governments have to please their major stakeholders. And the way people get money, especially in Latin America, is to use the political system to demand jobs, better income distribution, and more and better skills training. The poor do not get service through good evaluations; they get service when they get political power, a factor that is never reviewed in evaluations.
