If the Bank Group institutions want to prioritize their regional integration engagements, the evaluation offers the following six recommendations to address key barriers and support clients’ regional integration aspirations:
1. Initiate high-level, strategic commitments to regional integration in all operational regions in addition to Sub-Saharan Africa, with tailored approaches.
2. Realign the Bank Group’s business model to achieve managerial accountability both at country management unit and Global Practice levels, and create incentives for project teams.
3. Rebalance the Bank Group regional integration projects to emphasize regions with high integration potential, and regional public goods.
4. Create and promote universally accepted frameworks at the region and sector levels, and crowd-in new partners, most notably the private sector, international industry associations, and regional institutions.
5. Strengthen the design of projects supported by the IDA Regional Window, to improve the assessment of spillover effects and to generate evidence based on robust indicators.
6. Recalibrate the IDA Regional Window’s resource allocation to expand support for subregions with high untapped potential for integration.
See Chapter 4: Conclusions, Lessons, and Recommendations