Regular readers of this blog know that in IEG we are committed to a strategy that helps us “do the right things,” “do them right” and share our knowledge in cost-effective ways.

So how do we in IEG make strategic choices? We have four ingredients:

• A Gap Analysis to assess evaluation coverage over past years, related to the size of the World Bank Group;
   
• A new Results Framework to identify where evaluation evidence is needed and how it will influence Bank development effectiveness;
   
• Stakeholder consultations within the Bank Group, both Board and Management, and externally including think tanks and CSOs to solicit different perspectives on the top evaluation priorities; and
   
• Selectivity Sheets prepared for all proposed topics to assess relevance, potential influence, and IEG readiness and value added. These are attached to our work program for you to review.
   

We have a rolling three-year work program. Each year we take a look at it, determine whether our priorities are still right, revise it as needed, and add new ideas for the outer years of the program.

For the next planning cycle, we will be doing a couple of things:

• Making sure through stakeholder consultations, especially with colleagues in the Global Practices and Cross-Cutting Solutions Areas, that we clearly define our division of labor and expectations of each other. We’ve already had a number of requests for services to share lessons from our independent evaluations. It’s a great start that we want to maintain through our consultation process. At the same time, we will continue asking other stakeholders for their views as well.
   
• Update the gap analysis to reflect the structural changes in the Bank Group. This is a complex undertaking as the range of Bank services is far reaching and we need to take all of them into account, including account knowledge work and its convening role, as much as lending, investments, and guarantees.
   
• The new results framework challenges us to identify where evaluations can make the biggest difference in enhancing Bank Group development effectiveness in attaining the twin goals of poverty eradication and boosting shared prosperity. For me, this means identifying the key drivers of development effectiveness by using evidence from independent evaluation to unravel bottlenecks. Not an easy task for a complex institution like the World Bank Group. 
   
• Unpacking the question of the adequacy of our evaluation budget. Are we over-evaluating or under-evaluating the Bank? If we want to affect Bank Group development effectiveness could we achieve more if there were more resources for independent evaluation, or have we reached a healthy limit? Is the supply of independent evaluation beyond the Bank’s absorptive capacity, or is the need for independent evidence such that we should do more?

In short, the groundwork we laid during last year created a great platform for this year’s work program and for new challenges in the years to come.