Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This Country Program Evaluation (CPE) assesses the development effectiveness of the World Bank Group program in the Philippines between 2009 and 2018. The report provides input to the next Country Partnership Framework for the Philippines and may offer lessons for Bank Group country programs in other lower-middle-income countries facing similar development challenges.

Access of Poor to Social Services --- Climate Change --- Climate Change and Environment --- Conflict --- Development Economics and Aid Effectiveness --- Enterprise Development and Reform --- Environment --- Governance --- International Governmental Organizations --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- National Governance --- Partnerships --- Poverty Reduction --- Private Sector Development --- Resilience --- Violence

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The World Bank Group is currently engaged in reflection and debate on how to improve the delivery of development support. Part of this debate concerns strengthening the knowledge agenda. The findings of this evaluation are particularly relevant because they speak directly to questions that the institution is deliberating. In particular, they address four key aspects of the "science of delivery": the role of local partners or local knowledge hubs; consultation with clients and other stakeholders in the process of designing knowledge services; delivery of knowledge on issues that are relevant to the client; and improving the way the Bank Group learns from upper-middle-income countries and intermediating this knowledge to other countries. The evaluation assesses knowledge-based activities in nine country programs selected from 48 knowledge-intensive programs supported by the Bank Group. It identifies the factors in the success or failure of those activities as they contribute to policy making or development outcomes. It also identifies areas of strength for the Bank Group as well as areas of weakness or risk. The main objective of the evaluation is to learn lessons from practices in a focus group of high-income and upper-middle-income countries that have knowledge-based programs with the Bank Group. The findings have implications for the Bank Group's knowledge work, including governance and incentives. Over the past 15 years, Bank Group country programs have shifted toward more intensive delivery of knowledge services relative to lending, and this trend is expected to continue. The evaluation was done on economic and sector work and non-lending technical assistance activities selected from a purposive sample of knowledge-intensive country programs. In addition, the evaluation assessed International Finance Corporation Advisory Services for their synergy with the Bank's analytical and advisory activities. The lessons from this evaluation could help leverage the Bank Group's global knowledge to meet the needs of countries that mainly rely on knowledge services and are not pressed for financing.

Development Economics and Aid Effectiveness --- Education --- Governance --- Information and Communication Technologies --- International Governmental Organizations --- Knowledge for Development --- Knowledge Sharing --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- World Bank

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This evaluation seeks to inform the World Bank's efforts to support client countries to deliver sustainable irrigation and drainage services and achieve development impacts. The results of this evaluation can help the World Bank improve strategic approaches in an evolving context. Irrigation service delivery is increasingly challenged by multiple factors that are driving demand for agricultural production, water scarcity, and variability in water precipitation. These factors include population growth and urbanization leading to increasing demand for agricultural products, and greater competition for water resources from domestic and industrial users. Untreated urban wastewater released into water bodies affects irrigation water quality. Water availability is increasingly variable because of the effects of climate change.

Agricultural Sector Economics --- Agriculture --- Drainage --- Food Security --- Irrigation --- Irrigation and Drainage --- Water Resources --- Water Use

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

World Bank Group strategy continues to position SMEs as key vehicles to promote employment, value chain development, economic and social inclusion, and resilience in the face of fragility and conflict. This note synthesizes findings regarding SMEs and SME support from recent IEG evaluations, independent evaluations by other MDBs, and relevant World Bank Group research.

Advisory Services --- Development Economics and Aid Effectiveness --- Governance --- International Governmental Organizations --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Microenterprises --- Private Sector Development --- Private Sector Economics --- Small and Medium Size Enterprises

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Access to financial services has long been believed to lift people out of poverty by allowing them to seize economic opportunities and increase their welfare. Despite rapid progress of 700 million people gaining access to formal financial services, 2 billion remain excluded. Financial inclusion -- access by poor families and microenterprises to financial services -- has been an objective of the World Bank Group for a long time, reaffirmed in 2013 by President Jim Kim's commitment to the Universal Access Goal by 2020. This evaluation examines the relevance and effectiveness of seven years (FY07-13) of World Bank Group support to financial inclusion and its impact on the poor. It found that the World Bank Group contributed significantly to progress in financial inclusion globally and in client countries. It has "reached" a substantial share of the microfinance industry. Its support is strategically aligned with countries' needs, focusing primarily on countries with low inclusion rates and addressing development priorities. The Bank Group has also contributed to the sustainability of microfinance services. Yet the Bank Group's approach to identify and tackle constraints to financial inclusion at the country level is not sufficiently comprehensive. This is of particular concern for areas that are not subject to prudential regulations, like mobile money and rural savings and credit cooperatives. Even though the Bank Group was able to leverage its impact through international partnerships, these bear costs and risks and often lack results frameworks. But most importantly, the commitment to the Universal Access Goal and the resulting "push" for enabling access to financial services through transaction accounts may create a bias for driving up sheer access numbers. This may be problematic for several reasons: (i) access does not necessarily lead to inclusion, given high dormancy rates of newly created accounts; (ii) the link between access to finance and poverty alleviation is neither certain nor well understood, given the evidence that, in spite of modest benefits, the promise of microfinance pulling millions out of poverty has not been fulfilled; and (iii) current trends suggest one billion people may still lack access by 2020. These remaining financially excluded will increasingly be broadly distributed across many countries and predominantly in rural areas. Providing access to them is likely to require subsidization. Striking a balance between the costs and benefits of universal inclusion and weighing these against the cost and benefits of other competing development priorities will be essential.

Access To Finance --- Credit --- Finance and Development --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Literacy --- Financial Services --- Gender --- Inequality --- Poverty Reduction --- Rural Development --- Savings