This evaluation was prepared by an Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) team led by Estelle Raimondo, senior evaluation officer, under the overall direction of Alison Evans, Director-general, Evaluation, and with the guidance and supervision of Galina Sotirova, manager, Corporate and Human Development, Oscar Calvo-Gonzalez, director, Human Development and Economic Management, and Sophie Sirtaine, director, Strategy and Operations.

The team comprised Stephen Hutton, senior evaluation officer, who coauthored the report, led the design of case studies, and conducted several; Ana Belen Barbeito, senior evaluation officer, who led the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency analysis and conducted case studies; April Connelly, senior natural resource management specialist, who conducted case studies; Eduardo Fernandez Maldonado, evaluation officer, who managed the structured document review and conducted a number of case studies; Gaby Loibl, program assistant, who coordinated missions, meetings, interviews, and report preparation; Juan Carlos Mendez De La Torre, consultant, who led the literature review and the adaptive management content analysis; and Xiaoxiao Peng, consultant, who led the structured document analysis, quantitative analysis, and sentiment analysis. Maximillian Ashwill was the report’s primary editor.

External reviewers for this evaluation were Ms. Ellen Goldstein, president of EAG Global Leadership and former Country Director at the World Bank; Dr. Ruth Levine, an expert in global health, education, and evaluation who is currently chief executive officer of IDinsightand was previously program director, Global Development and Population at the Hewlett Foundation, a senior fellow and vice president for programs and operations at the Center for Global Development, and deputy assistant administrator in the Bureau of Policy, Planning and Learning at the United States Agency for International Development; Professor Frans Leeuw, emeritus professor at Maastricht University and an international expert in monitoring and evaluation systems; and Dr. Ben Ramalingam, international expert on adaptive management in international development, executive director of the Global Learning Alliance on Adaptive Management, and senior fellow at the Overseas Development Institute.

The team is grateful for the very useful feedback provided throughout the evaluation process by the Operations Policy and Country Services teams, the IFC Corporate Strategy and Partnership Unit, and Country Economics Team, as well as regional vice presidential units. Finally, the team is grateful to the many World Bank Group country teams who engaged with us and gave generously of their time for interviews. Thanks are also due to the country offices of Peru, Romania, Serbia, and the Solomon Islands, as well as Hubs in Vienna and Sydney, for their support during our missions.