ABSTRACT
This chapter takes up the more specific question of the institutional obstacles that exist within the Bank to achieving greater convergence between theory and practice. It focuses on a set of operational imperatives that influence project selection, design and implementation based on examples taken from the agricultural sector in general and Indonesia's agricultural portfolio in particular. The chapter briefly describes a set of four operational imperatives that have exerted a powerful influence on the content and impact of the World Bank's lending programme. Like the early Bank, the post-Washington consensus Bank is once again stressing its role as a provider of public goods, a desire to supplement rather than replace private investment and a limited role for the state. The aim of The Integrated Swamps Development Project, approved in 1994, is to upgrade drainage, flood control and transportation infrastructure, and to provide a range of services including agricultural extension and clean drinking water in an area of 78,000 hectares.
