In recent years, the global development landscape has been profoundly shaped by a series of overlapping shocks: the accelerating climate crisis, rising public debt, growing food insecurity, an uneven recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the far-reaching effects of geopolitical conflicts. These challenges threaten the World Bank Group’s progress in its mission to end extreme poverty and foster shared prosperity on a livable planet. In the face of this new reality, the Bank Group has adapted its strategies to achieve greater efficiency, accelerate and scale up its engagements, and sharpen its focus on priority areas.

IEG has also evolved to ensure its work remains relevant and impactful for both the Board of Executive Directors and Bank Group management and operations. In FY24, we revised our strategic framework to align with the Bank Group’s evolving priorities and reorganized our work into new thematic streams that mirror the Bank Group’s verticals: Planet, People, Prosperity, Infrastructure, and Digital Technology. IEG continues to address cross-cutting issues—such as fragility, conflict, and violence; gender; and private capital—while maintaining its focus on corporate effectiveness and CPEs. Theories of change and evidence gap maps for each thematic stream now guide the selection of evaluation topics and help prioritize evidence gaps that IEG’s work can address.

We have a robust program of evaluations planned for FY26, including nine thematic and corporate evaluations, four to five Country Program Evaluations, the annual Results and Performance of the World Bank Group, and the Management Action Record Validation Report. Our project-level validation work has increased significantly over the past five years, with the number of ICRRs rising by 43 percent. Although this number is expected to stabilize, IEG will expand its validation coverage of IFC projects through XPSRs, moving from a sample-based approach to 100 percent coverage, which aligns with coverage of World Bank projects.

IEG continues to serve as a knowledge leader in the development evaluation community. With over five decades of experience and a rich repository of project-level data, we actively leverage our knowledge base for research and learning. We’re invested in innovative methodologies and technologies, and regularly share our expertise through seminars, courses, and knowledge exchanges.

As a founding member of the Evaluation Cooperation Group (ECG) and co-chair of the Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI), IEG plays a pivotal role in building collaboration among multilateral development banks and bilateral agencies. Through these platforms, IEG promotes knowledge sharing, methodological innovation, and joint learning. Our leadership in client capacity development is evident through training programs, direct support to client evaluation teams, and the management of global monitoring and evaluation resources such as the BetterEvaluation website.

IEG remains committed to supporting the Bank Group’s mission by providing timely, relevant, and high-quality evaluations. By continuously adapting our approaches and deepening our engagement with partners, we ensure that our work not only informs decision-making within the Bank Group but also contributes to the broader global development community’s efforts to address today’s most pressing challenges.

Learn more about our FY26 plans and goals in the FY26 Work Program and Budget and FY27–28 Indicative Plan.