(4) IEG recommends that Bank management work with other development partners at the next HLF-4 to mobilize technical and financial support for: - Generating good practice case studies for country-led aid management and coordination - Developing and maintaining a country-level up-todate, comprehensive and functional database for aid linked to government budgets - Country-led streamlining and rationalizing of aid coordination mechanisms.
IEG finds that government leadership is key for effective harmonization and alignment; however, leadership is not always present, in part because of weak capacity. Inadequate aid flow data at the country level also hampers effective aid management by the government. In addition, increasing aid fragmentation is a major issue confronting effective coordination in countries, and there is a need to streamline and rationalize aid coordination mechanisms.
Original Response: Management welcomes the IEG recommendation that development partners should coordinate "to provide technical and financial support to strengthen country leadership of aid management and coordination," reflecting the Bank's support for government-led aid management. Management is also supportive of greater transparency of aid data in general and of greater accessibility of aid data at the country level to help reduce fragmentation and increase domestic accountability. The Bank has been championing the issue of aid data linked to partner country budget systems in its global work on transparency in the lead up to the Busan HLF-4. - Management will continue to conduct work on country-led aid management as part of its post-Busan work program, will continue to disseminate findings on streamlining and rationalizing aid coordination mechanisms, and will continue to champion aid transparency in and after Busan and through its contributions to the International Aid Transparency Initiative.
IEG recommendation for Bank management contained three actionable areas in the direction of mobilizing technical and financial support for: (i) Generating good practice case studies for country-led aid management and coordination; (ii) Developing and maintaining a country-level up-to-date, comprehensive and functional database for aid linked to government budgets; (iii) Country-led streamlining and rationalizing of aid coordination mechanisms. The management Update, beyond mentioning that the ongoing second monitoring round is expected to provide data from 88 developing countries, does not mention or give good practice case studies for country-led aid management and coordination. Although the response states that the Bank management has gradually improved its reporting of aid data through the global standard, there are no specific updates on recommendations (ii) and (iii). Therefore, the implementation progress is rated moderate.
Bank management has since the HLF-4 in Busan in 2011 worked continuously with other development partners through the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC), which was established after the HLF-4 to support the global implementation of the development effectiveness principles agreed in Busan. The Busan principles - Ownership of development priorities by developing countries; Focus on results; Inclusive development partnerships; and Transparency and accountability to each other - includes the areas that IEG recommended Bank management to work with other development partners to mobilize support for. A centerpiece of the GPEDC is the monitoring framework for implementation of the Busan principles, which includes indicators for aid on budget, Use of country PFM and procurement systems, use of country results frameworks by cooperation providers, % of development co-operation funding scheduled for disbursement that is recorded in the annual budgets approved by the legislatures of developing countries. The ongoing second monitoring round is expected to provide data from 88 developing countries. The monitoring process is country led, and Bank country offices is cooperating with national coordinators to collect and validate data. Access to aid flow data is crucial for effective aid management by governments and oversight function of civil society. The Bank management has gradually improved its reporting of aid data through the global standard defined by the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) since its first publication of data in 2011. In 2016 the Bank was ranked as the 7th most transparent aid provider by the Aid Transparency Index published by Publish what You Fund. Furthermore, the Bank management has successfully worked with like minded development partners to change IATI's initial narrow focus on transparency commitments of aid providers to a broader agenda that includes facilitation of the use of IATI data in governments' aid management and planning processes.
Management response does not provide concrete information on implementation progress. IEG recommendation for Bank management contained three actionable areas in the direction of mobilizing technical and financial support for: (i) Generating good practice case studies for country-led aid management and coordination; (ii) Developing and maintaining a country-level up-to-date, comprehensive and functional database for aid linked to government budgets; (iii) Country-led streamlining and rationalizing of aid coordination mechanisms. Management update informs about Bank participation in various important and high-profile donor initiatives and reaffirms the initial tacit agreement (albeit not explicit) with the recommendation contained in the original response. However, the spirit of the recommendation and the focus of suggested actions are clearly at the country level, which is not addressed in the updated response. The response does not mention any outcomes in terms of "mobilizing technical and financial support". Furthermore, the update does not contain any information about accomplished actions, nor does it state an intention to undertake any in the three areas identified in the recommendation: (i) there are no specific good practice case studies for country-led aid management and coordination; (ii) there is no mention of any particular initiative related to developing country-level database linked to government budgets; and (iii) it does not mention any "country-led" streamlining and rationalizing. Therefore, the implementation progress is rated negligible.
As the representative of the Multilateral Development Banks in the Steering Committee for the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC), the Bank is encouraging GPEDC to focus its efforts on development effectiveness as its core business as outlined by the HLF-4 in Busan. Through the regular work of the Bank at country and regional level, the Bank is supporting progress of agreed GPEDC priorities, which includes country ownership and use of country systems; inclusive partnerships; domestic resource mobilization; South-South and triangular cooperation, and knowledge sharing; business in development. GPEDCs country focused global monitoring of the implementation of commitments made in Busan remains a high priority in the Banks engagement with GPEDC. The Monitoring framework is currently comprised of ten indicators, with targets for 2015, which focus on strengthening developing country institutions, increasing transparency and predictability of development cooperation, enhancing gender equality, as well as supporting greater involvement of civil society, parliaments and private sector in development efforts. The World Bank Group, relying on strong internal collaboration and working jointly with the IMF and regional Multilateral Development Banks, has successfully contributed to a strong, forward-looking financing narrative in support of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa saw a convergence around the idea that financing the Sustainable Development Goals will require effective leverage of all available resources, as well as strong partnership across the global community - all governments, the private sector, development finance institutions, CSOs, and foundations. This was reinforced through an array of side events at the Addis conference organized by the World Bank Group, including the flagship Billions to Trillions panel discussion, as well as the International Business Forum. The Bank continuously works to increase timely and comprehensive public access to its data. The Bank's efforts were recognized in the 2015 transparency rating of major donors by Publish What You Fund. The Bank increased its score and was placed in the top Very Goodcategory together with six other development cooperation institutions. The Bank is a member of the Steering Committee for International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and among one of the first organizations to publish substantive development cooperation data though the IATI standard. The Bank is actively supporting IATIs change of focus from providers' publication of data towards use of the published data by developing countries through pioneering support to interfaces between IATI data and country systems.
The Bank's leadership role in streamlining and rationalizing aid coordination mechanisms continues to be strong. This year's management update suggests further activities to support such efforts particularly with regard to analytical work, MDB coordination, and others in collaboration with the UN.
In preparation of the First High Level Meeting (HLM) of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation in Mexico in April 2014, the Bank has closely collaborated with partner governments, other MDBs and bilateral development partners in taking stock of the aid effectiveness agenda at the global and country level. Country-led aid management is at the core of this agenda. The Global Monitoring Report prepared by OECD for the HLM found that the Bank had improved on most dimensions that were also measured in the 2011 Paris Declaration Survey, including aid predictability and aid on budget, while performance on the use of country systems was stable. Through its country offices, the Bank has supported the data collection for the Global Monitoring Report which was sourced locally from country governments.
In addition, in preparation for the Mexico HLM and as part of its deliberations and negotiations of the outcome communique, the World Bank Group, including IFC, contributed to substantive work on country-led aid effectiveness, including the use of country results systems; improvements in domestic resource mobilization; facilitation of knowledge sharing between countries, including south-south and triangular development cooperation; and improving the enabling and investment environment for the private sector as partner in development. The Bank has collaborated with other MDBs in producing a joint brochure on how MDBs promote and support country-led development efforts.
The Bank also harmonizes its development efforts with other MDBs through standing working groups on aid effectiveness and managing for development results at the corporate level and numerous in-country coordination mechanisms. In the context of the increasingly important deliberations on the post-2015 development agenda, the UN Secretary General's office has asked the Bank to lead the analytical work and coordination with other MDBs on the important topic on scaling up finance for development in preparation of the Third Finance for Development Conference in 2015. In addition, the Bank has signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation on Statistical Activities with the UN and other MDBs with the objective to jointly build improved statistical capacity at the country level.
In addition, the Bank remains committed to transparency and is continuing to improve the quality and coverage of its data under the International Aid Transparency Initiative. The Bank has moved to quarterly publication of its IATI data, has included geo-locations in its IATI publication and is exploring options to include additional data sets, such as and project results and conditions. In the 2014 Aid Transparency Index, The Bank was placed in the highest category for the first time based on an increase in overall score from 73.8 to 82.3 percent since 2013.
The Bank's leadership role on streamlining and rationalizing aid coordination mechanisms should be commended, as well as its efforts to improve the quality and coverage of its own data. We look forward to good practice case studies for country-level aid management and coordination, and efforts to support the creation of country level multi-partner databases of aid linked to government budgets.
Regarding country-led aid management, the Bank has embarked on a comprehensive procurement and financial management reform process which puts the use of country systems at the core of reforms. Once implemented, these reforms will significantly increase the use of country systems by the Bank which stood at 71% for FM systems and 55% for procurement systems for the 78 countries which were included in the 2011 Paris Declaration Survey. The Monitoring Framework under development for the Global Partnership will continue to monitor use of country systems for multi-lateral and bilateral donors.
Regarding streamlining and rationalizing aid coordination mechanisms, the Bank is a Steering Committee Member of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation created in Busan. In this capacity, the Bank represents the other MDBs on the Steering Committee and actively contributes to a standing dialogue with other Steering Committee members (representatives of aid provider and recipient countries, civil society, private business associations and parliamentarians) on global aid effectiveness issues. This includes participation in working groups on private sector development, knowledge sharing and the preparation of the ministerial meeting of the Global Partnership in late 2013/early 2014 which will take stock of Busan implementation and profile aid effectiveness at the political level.
The Bank is continuing to improve the quality and coverage of its data under the International Aid Transparency Initiative. The Bank has committed to increasing publication frequency from semi-annually to quarterly and will start implementation in the second half of 2013. The Bank is also planning further upgrades of its IT systems to include additional data in the IATI publication in FY14.