Why Evaluate? 

IEG’s evaluation products aim to influence the World Bank Group's ability to achieve development outcomes by providing impartial, evidence-based assessments and lessons on drivers of success and failure.

What is Evaluated?

IEG evaluates the activities of the World Bank Group (the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and International Development Association), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).

Major Evaluations

IEG Major Evaluations are mainly aligned with World Bank Group priorities. The two main objectives of IEG major evaluations are:

1. Deepen evidence about the results of WBG programs and activities and their contribution to the World Bank Group’s strategic priorities and ultimately its twin goals.
2. Generate evidence on operational choices to enable mid-course corrections and promote a stronger internal culture for results, accountability, and learning.

Over the past five years, IEG has increasingly moved to a strategic selection process for its major evaluations to ensure greater influence of each individual evaluation, and of all of them collectively.

  • Thematic and Sector Evaluations: These evaluations relate largely to our first objective and examine Bank Group results and performance in delivering towards the twin goals. They are organized into Strategic Engagements Areas and increasingly focus on cross-cutting themes (such as competitiveness and jobs) or sectors (such as essential health services). These evaluations assess Bank Group services – from analytical work through lending and guarantees – that were provided over 5-10 years periods.
  • Corporate and Process Evaluations: These evaluations largely correspond to our second objective and focus on how well the World Bank Group performing against its corporate goals. Evaluations are examining, among other the new country engagement model, or new instruments to provide early feedback on their utility and the need for course corrections.

Evaluation Insight Notes (EINs)

Evaluation Insight Notes (EIN) offer new insights from existing evidence. EINs synthesize past lessons and evidence to inform current decisions, address knowledge gaps, and enhance operational learning. Drawing from the Independent Evaluation Group’s (IEG) rich knowledge repository, these syntheses respond to the need for more rapid and focused evaluative evidence. EINs systematically analyze data from a range of evaluations, validations, and other studies to generate insights in a timely manner around important strategic and operational issues. New evidence gathering is not within the scope of EINs.

Country and Project-level Evaluations

  • Country-Focused Evaluations: Country Program Evaluation (CPE) assesses the development effectiveness of World Bank Group support to a country over a period of about 10 years, paying particular attention to the WBG’s ability to adapt its strategy and operations to reflect changing circumstances and lessons learned from experience.
  • Project-Level Evaluations: Completed projects are evaluated through Project Performance Assessment Reports (PPARs). They are carried out after World Bank projects have been completed and involve site visits to assess performance and results.
  • Completion and Learning Review Validations: These are IEG’s validations of WBG country teams’ Completion and Learning Reviews (CLRs), which are conducted at the close of every Country Partnership Framework (CPF) period. CLRs are self-evaluations of the CPF program’s performance and WBG’s performance in implementing the CPF. The primary purpose of the CLR and CLRV are to bring learning from CPF implementation into the next CPF.
  • Project-Completion Report Validations: These are desk-based exercises to validate World Bank Implementation Completion Reports (ICRRs).

Other Evaluation Products

  • Results and Performance of the World Bank Group (RAP): This report is prepared annually to provide a comprehensive assessment of the World Bank Group’s development effectiveness, drawing on project portfolio data. The report also looks at the WBG’s performance in a specific thematic area, such as gender (in FY15), the Millennium Development Goals (in FY14), Gender Equality (in FY16),  Managing for Results (in FY17).
  • IEG Evaluation Methods Resources: These resources are designed to provide evaluation professionals with guidance on methodological practices, through a series of publications on evaluation methodological research led by the IEG Methods Advisory Team, and other resources related to the promotion of evaluation knowledge.
  • IEG Annual Reports: the annual reports provide an update on IEG’s work program.