The Landscape of World Bank Knowledge

Services: A Perspective from the

Independent Evaluation Group

Keynote AddressKeynote Address

Sharing Knowledge for Development: In search of Best Practices

Korea Development Institute (KDI)

Seoul, November 4-5, 2009

Ali M. KhadrSenior ManagerCountry Evaluation and Regional Relations , IEG

Support in preparing this presentation from Gita Gopal , Anwesha Prabhu, and Corky de Asis is gratefully acknowledged, with the usual disclaimers.

Issues Covered in this Address

►Landscape of Knowledge Services (KSs) at the World Bank

►Key World Bank KSs

►How KSs Relate to World Bank Lending

►How Resources are Allocated for KSs►How Resources are Allocated for KSs

►Fee-Based Services

►Korea and World Bank Knowledge Services

►What the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) Brings

►Way Forward and Challenges

Knowledge on Development Solutions: A

Fluid Landscape

►Knowledge, Learning, and Innovation are Emerging as Key Areas for Development• Creating or capturing and sharing different types of

knowledge and information on development solutions

►ICT has Revolutionized Knowledge-SharingElectronic media can be used to share best practices, and • Electronic media can be used to share best practices, and knowledge of what has worked and what has not, as well as to exchange information rapidly and systematically

►Rapid Changes Impacting Development Solutions Require Real-Time Feedback Loop• Fuel, Food, and Financial Crises

Factors and Trends Affecting Development

Solutions , Hence KSs

►Many current issues (financial crisis, climate change) require rapid, agile and innovative responses

►The nature of development funding is shifting away from multilateral towards bilateral funding

►Demand for greater voice and partnership from the ►Demand for greater voice and partnership from the south is on the rise; global review of Bretton Woods institutions is taking place

►Meanwhile, key clients (especially MICs) are demanding more agile and customized development solutions and new "how to" advisory services, with implications for how knowledge is captured, adapted, and shared

World Bank Leadership in and Vision for KSs

►Recent Gallup poll confirms World Bank's perceived pre-eminence as a leading source of developmental knowledge

►The World Bank’s emerging vision for development knowledge (under discussion):knowledge (under discussion):• Customized development solutions informed by global

knowledge and expertise

• Global reach and advocacy on key public goods and broad development challenges

• Open dialogue on development alternatives

World Bank Knowledge Services

►Advisory and Analytical Activities (AAA)• Economic and Sector Work • Non-Lending Technical Assistance

ProgramsPrograms• Research Studies• Smaller set of Activities: WDR, Donor

Coordination, Impact Evaluation Studies

►Training and Capacity Enhancement Activities

Objectives of World Bank Knowledge Services

►Build Country Institutional Capacity • Country Financial Accountability Assessments• Country Procurement Assessment Reforms

►Provide Information for Policy Discussion • Public Expenditure Reviews• Poverty and Social Impact Assessments

►Prepare Country Strategies ►Prepare Country Strategies • Country Economic memorandums• Country Gender Assessments

►Design Effective Lending Programs• Sector Work in Education Health, Transport, etc

►Share Global Knowledge• World Bank Institute• Regional and Global ESW (World Development Reports, etc)

85 percent of AAA spending was on ESW and

TA during FY00-06

Research

Services, 12%

Impact

Evaluation,

0.03%WDR, 2%

Donor & Aid

Coordination,

1%

TA, 24%ESW, 61%

Training and Capacity Enhancement

WBI

$72m,

10%

Client Training Financing

Projects

$648m,

90%

Economic and Sector Work

►Reports: Comprehensive in-depth study outlining policy recommendations• Core Diagnostic Reports (Poverty Assessments, Country

Economic Memorandums, etc.,)

• Advisory Reports address a variety of sector-specific or • Advisory Reports address a variety of sector-specific or thematic issues of high priority and are more specifically tailored to meet client needs.

►Policy Notes: Provides "just-in-time" advice to a client on a range of development issues.

Non-Lending Technical Assistance

► Advice on client-owned blueprint for institutional strengthening, ranging from broad-based strategies to fully implementable plans, which can include the sequencing of activities, resource allocation, key issues, objectives, and other action items• Example: The task will help the Government of Vietnam develop a joint

government-donor gender strategy. This task aims to develop a plan of action for promoting gender equality in Vietnam.

► Advice on client-driven data collection and analysis used for ► Advice on client-driven data collection and analysis used for projections, forecasting, and simulations• Example: The task will involve the development of a pension forecasting

model for Slovenia.

►World-Bank-facilitated, client-managed meetings aimed at sharing international good practice, exchanging knowledge, catalyzing reform, and building consensus on a particular issue• Example: The task involves technical support for an international

conference on EU Accession for Turkey.

Development Research Services

►World Development Reports (WDRs)• WDRs provides a wide international readership with an extraordinary

window on development economics. • Each year, the report focuses on a specific aspect of development:

– WDR 2008: Agriculture for Development– WDR 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography

►DEC Research Group is the main research unit in the Bank. • its mandate includes research that may be cross-country and across • its mandate includes research that may be cross-country and across

sectors, reaching beyond the ambit of any specific regional unit or sector board.

• also undertakes in-depth, systematic investigations of policy experience within single countries where this is expected to generate insights of a broader nature.

►All are available on the World Bank’s external webpage• http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/0,,menu

PK:476823~pagePK:64165236~piPK:64165141~theSitePK:469372,00.html

Decisions on AAA and its Resourcing

►Between Fiscal 2002-2005: five core diagnostics were mandated for each active borrowing country• Poverty Assessments, Country Economic Memorandums or

Development Policy Reviews, Public Expenditure Reports, County Financial Accountability Assessments (CFAAs), and Country Procurement Assessment Reports (CPARs)

►From FY06 onward, this changed • Mandated work considered inefficient, and resulting in uneven

benefits to clients.

• Programmed country by country, depending on type and level of Bank engagement, client priorities and circumstances, and the availability of relevant knowledge

►Country AAA allocations no longer tied to lending

Fee-Based Services (FBSs)

►When eligible clients require services, which cannot be funded in full from country programs, the Bank may provide any type of AAA on a fee-for-service basis, under certain conditions

►Fee-based services are meant to give the Bank’s regional offices—and to a lesser extent networks—the flexibility to respond to client demands:respond to client demands:• above and beyond what their budgets allows for; unforeseen by the CAS,

but consistent with it; and for technical assistance – including operational expertise - un-bundled from lending

►FBSs are regulated by an individual legal agreement between the Bank and the recipient of the services. As service provider, the Bank has an obligation to report directly to the client

►Considerations include: What price structure? What relations with the private sector? When it should be done? What rules for exit and entry? What policies apply and what are the quality assurance arrangements?

Who Were the Main Users of FBSs?

$8

$10

$12

$14

$16

$18 $16.5m

$13.7m

$6.5m

Am

ou

nts

in U

S$

mil

lio

n

$0

$2

$4

$6

$8 $6.5m

$4.4m$3.3m

$2.7m $2.5m $2.2m$1.6m $1.3mA

mo

un

ts in

US

$ m

illi

on

FBSs in FY00-09 : Who Paid?

Bank

$1.6m,

9%

TF sources

$0.5m,

3%

Clients

$15.8m,

88%

FBSs in FY00-09 By Product and Region

ESW

$3.8m,

21%

Others

$1.4m,

8%LCR

$1.8m,

10%

AFR

$0.7m,

4%

EAP

$0.5m,

3%

TA

$12.8m,

71%

MNA

$9.5m,

53%

M,ECA

$5.4

30%

Korea and WB Knowledge Services

►Research Work• Why is son preference declining in South Korea? The role of development

and public policy, and the implications for China and India (2009)• Battling the Forces of Global Recession, as part of the East Asia and

Pacific Update (2009)

►Economic and Sector Work• Private Participation in Infrastructure in the Republic of Korea (2009).

This paper reviews the procurement of Private Participation in This paper reviews the procurement of Private Participation in Infrastructure applying to projects in the country and benchmarks it to international best practices before proposing options for its improvement

• Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC): Accounting and Auditing (2004). This report provides an assessment of accounting and auditing practices in the Republic of Korea

►Korea is providing the World Bank US$15 million for ICT4D• The Trust Fund will help foster the information and

communications technology agenda in developing countries• http://www.infodev.org/en/Article.152.html

The Independent Evaluation Group

►Governance Structure and Independence► IEG assesses what works, and what does not as well as the

lasting contribution of the Bank to a country's overall development.

►Goals of evaluation: learn from experience, provide an objective basis for assessing the results of the Bank's work, and provide accountability in the achievement of its objectivesand provide accountability in the achievement of its objectives

►Helps improves WB work by identifying and disseminating the lessons from experience and framing recommendations drawn from findings

►One of IEG 's Five Strategic Objectives is to invest in knowledge and partnerships, working with partners to broaden its methods, reduce evaluation overload for countries, and increase opportunities for dissemination of lessons learned• Partnerships allow IEG to expand its frontiers in terms of experience,

resources and outreach.

How IEG Contributes

►Additional technical expertise, methodological know-how, and in-country knowledge on evaluation

►Increased involvement of Borrower and key stakeholders in the evaluation process

►Increased dissemination and utilization of evaluation ►Increased dissemination and utilization of evaluation findings and recommendations

►The entire body of IEG’s work is not currently counted under World Bank Knowledge-Based Services

►More detail on IEG evaluation of KSs in second session presentation

Moving Forward …

►World Bank is in the process of drafting a Strategy to cover KBSs, one of the President’s “Six Themes” • Customized development solutions informed by global

knowledge and expertise

• Global reach and advocacy on key public goods and • Global reach and advocacy on key public goods and broad development challenges

• Open dialogue on development alternatives

• A new results-driven agenda for development

Challenges and Opportunities for WB

►Should it shift from knowledge generator to knowledge connector?

► Is the current organization structure around countries and sectors appropriate for such knowledge management?

►How is knowledge gathered in a decentralized Bank?• Multiplicity of websites (2,000+ ) and courses (almost 2,700)• Multiplicity of websites (2,000+ ) and courses (almost 2,700)

• Staff are also decentralized leading to erosion of communities of practice

►Are incentives and organizational culture supportive of knowledge-sharing (individualistic culture, knowledge budget atomized, little incentive to extract knowledge out of operations)?

►Given the changes in the development landscape (e.g., climate change) is the staff-mix right?