ABSTRACT
The World Bank’s Operations Evaluation Department (OED) began evaluating Bank country assistance programs in fiscal 1995. These country assistance evaluations (CAEs) assess how well Bank assistance programs have met their objectives within an extended period, normally a decade.1 By the end of fiscal 2004, OED had issued CAEs assessing the impact of Bank assistance to 58 countries.2 These evaluations cover roughly 41 percent of borrowers and 65 percent of total net commitments. This note summarizes some preliminary findings and lessons from the 25 CAEs completed in fiscal 2001-03, but also includes some insights gained from the additional eight CAEs completed during fiscal
2004.3 The first section presents overall findings and lessons for development extracted from CAEs. The second section reports on nine major lessons specifically for the Bank. Three of these are general lessons, emphasizing the importance of government ownership and political economy considerations, the role of institution building, and the interdependencies in reform efforts. Three other lessons have implications for Bank instruments: one each for economic and sector work (ESW), investment/technical assistance (TA) lending, and adjustment lending. The last three lessons relate to strategy formulation by the Bank and its response to downside risks and turn-arounds in country situations.
