"Staff incentives for excellence in knowledge services: Design appropriate incentives to promote staff engagement in knowledge activities. Move to a financial and budget framework that balances managerial incentives for lending and knowledge activities. Link funding to country units to results from country partnership strategy monitoring framework rather than lending operations."
"Enhancing the Bank Group's success rate on knowledge services will require that the highest-caliber staff have incentives to be in the knowledge services "business". There is a perception at the Bank that lending experience is essential for promotion, and the performance management system does not have enough incentives to promote knowledge activities. Moreover, country unit budgets are organized around the supervision and execution of lending operations, with knowledge services being in support of such operations. Otherwise, knowledge services are more like incidental items in the operation of country units."
Original Response: Partially Agreed: "WB: Various actions have been initiated to achieve greater incentives for knowledge work. The increased focus on results, client feedback and ex-post evaluation coupled with the improved management oversight (from senior management down to the task team) will help to place greater focus on results. Aside from the changes outlined above, we have instituted a routine management meeting chaired by the managing director and attended by the regional operations directors/vice presidents and the network vice presidents), to jointly review the knowledge and lending portfolio. Starting from FY14, results from the client feedback will be linked to or inform the MOU established between the managing director and the various vice presidents (Regions and networks). The allocation of resources to support knowledge products is already driven by the country program's expected results. Client and Bank teams determine what outcomes the Bank hopes to influence and then identify the activities needed to achieve these outcomes. Resources are then allocated to support the required activities. In many cases these are stand alone knowledge products that are unrelated to lending. Management is committed to continue to strengthen and align incentives - including budget - to achieve excellence in knowledge services, and, in general, to achieve improved development results. However, it cannot commit at this stage to specific budget allocation principles, at the time when the entire budget process is being reviewed to align it to the new World Bank Group strategy under development."
Action 5A: Systematically review the knowledge portfolio, along with the lending portfolio, in the routine management meeting chaired by the MD.
Indicator: Regular discussion at the ABCD meeting.
Baseline: No regular discussion of the Knowledge portfolio.
Target: The knowledge portfolio is routinely monitored using an agreed set of portfolio management indicators .
Timeline: FY15.
Action 5B: CFI results hardwired with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) of the Regions and Networks.
Indicator: CFI results as part of MOU.
Baseline: CFI is made operational but is not yet explicitly linked to planning of Regions/Networks.
Target: CFI is linked to the MOUs between the MD and the VPs of the Regions and Networks and informs strategic focus of knowledge activities and resource allocation.
Timeline: FY15
Judged against the limited actions identified by Bank Management for this recommendation, IEG rates it high. IEG notes that several other actions would be needed if staff incentives for excellence in knowledge services are to be improved.
All actions under recommendation 0227 have been completed. Management proposes the rating Complete, with a status of Active (to be made inactive). On Action 5A, quarterly updates on the ASA portfolio have been provided in meetings chaired by the MDO/CEO since mid-FY15, with subsequent updates provided to the Board. On Action 5B, two Client Satisfaction survey-based indicators are included in the MOUs of the Regions and Practice Groups: "Outcomes achieved by ASA" and "Outcomes achieved by RAS".
According to the Bank, updates on the ASA portfolio have been provided to Bank management, and client satisfaction surveys relating to ASA have been included in MOUs. Against the narrowly defined Action Plan, adoption is high. Evidence that 'appropriate incentives to promote staff engagement in knowledge activities' have been designed would also have been helpful. A survey of staff undertaking knowledge activities about whether they felt sufficiently recognized for such work would have provided relevant evidence.
All actions under recommendation 0227 have been completed. Management proposes the rating Complete, with a status of Active (to be made inactive).
On Action 5A, quarterly updates on the ASA portfolio have been provided in ABCDQ meetings chaired by the MDO since mid-FY15, with subsequent updates provided to the Board.
On Action 5B, two Client Satisfaction survey-based indicators are included in the MOUs of the Regions and Practice Groups: "Outcomes achieved by ASA" and "Outcomes achieved by RAS".
Indicators met. The question is if the spirit of the recommendation--to design appropriate incentives to promote staff engagement in knowledge activities--is reflected in changed behaviors of Global Practices and country units, that have resulted in meaningful differences in this area for the WBG. IEG discussed issue with management, who expects to monitor change in culture with respect to designing appropriate incentives to promote staff engagement in knowledge activities, particularly in country units, which are the frontline of engagement with countries. Such appropriate incentives are expected to be applied by GPs as well.
The following actions have been implemented in FY15:
Action 5A:
Systematic review of the knowledge portfolio and indicators, along with the lending portfolio, has continued during FY15 in ABCD meetings chaired by the MD.
Action 5B:
1) CFI was systematically implemented and delivered to all AAA/ASA activities, upon their completion. CFI was also expanded to include lending clients, and rebranded to the World Bank Group Satisfaction Survey.
2) CFI results are fully hardwired on MOUs with regions and global practices (including cross-cutting).
3) CFI results are systematically reported in the Corporate Scorecard.
Additional Information From Management: As noted in the IEG response, the indicators have been met and all actions under this recommendation have been completed. Therefore, management proposes the rating Complete, with a status of Active (to be made inactive).
With regards to monitoring a change in culture with respect to designing appropriate incentives to promote staff engagement in knowledge activities, please note that this was not included in the action plan and should not preclude the closing of this action item. The targets that were in the action plan and which have been fully completed are:
- Target for Action 5A - the knowledge portfolio is routinely monitored using an agreed set of portfolio management indicators. Indicator: regular discussion at the ABCD meeting.
- Target for Action 5B - CFI is linked to the MOU between the MD and the VPs of the regions and networks and informs strategic focus of knowledge activities and resource allocation. Indicator: CFI results as part of MOU.
This area ("Staff incentives for excellence in knowledge services: Design appropriate incentives to promote staff engagement in knowledge activities. Move to a financial and budget framework that balances managerial incentives for lending and knowledge activities. Link funding to country units to results from country partnership strategy monitoring framework rather than lending operations.") is one of the most challenging of the KBCPE MAR recommendations and arguably one of the most important to help succeed the new Bank Group strategy.
5A: knowledge portfolio given more prominence in management focus and discussions. 5B: partial coverage of CFI results on GP/Regional MOUs--need more complete hardwiring of CFI results in MOUs with regions and global practices (including cross-cutting) and evidence of strong practical implementation.
Action 5A: Systematically review the knowledge portfolio, along with the lending portfolio, in the routine management meeting chaired by the MD.
Indicator: Regular discussion at the ABCD meeting.
Baseline: No regular discussion of the Knowledge portfolio.
Target: The knowledge portfolio is routinely monitored using an agreed set of portfolio management indicators .
Timeline: FY15.
What was achieved in FY14:
Systematic review of the knowledge portfolio, along with the lending portfolio takes place at the ABCD meeting chaired by the MD.
Action 5B: CFI results hardwired with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) of the Regions and Networks.
Indicator: CFI results as part of MOU.
Baseline: CFI is made operational but is not yet explicitly linked to planning of Regions/Networks.
Target: CFI is linked to the MOUs between the MD and the VPs of the Regions and Networks and informs strategic focus of knowledge activities and resource allocation.
Timeline: FY15
What was achieved in FY14:
1) Two of the CFI indicators (development objectives achieved and composite quality) have been included into GP/ Regional MOUs and CSC. Setting up targets and tracking these indicators have become a regular portfolio management and monitoring process.