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Informing Policy and Decisions

Looking Ahead

With world events and compounding crises requiring increasingly speedy responses, IEG will focus on rebalancing its work program to provide evidence for short- and long-term agendas. In FY23, IEG’s evaluations will inform ongoing crisis responses and rebuilding efforts, remain focused on the long-term development agenda, and continue to increase attention to country-level outcomes. At the same time, IEG will make room for flexibility in its work program to respond to changing priorities. We’ll be ready to create shorter assessments that draw on existing evidence to provide insights. In this way, we aim to continue providing the evaluative evidence to inform decisions and policies across the World Bank Group.

The production, management, and sharing of data will continue to be at the forefront of IEG’s movement toward increasing the quality, timeliness, and value of its work. In FY23, IEG will continue to enhance data science literacy among its staff through targeted trainings. The Knowledge Action Plan, developed in FY22, will establish a cohesive, efficient, lifecycle process for capturing, curating, archiving, and sharing IEG’s knowledge. These will work together to increase our reach and efficiency through better knowledge practices.

Another topic of growing importance is improving working practices by refining IEG’s responsible evaluation approaches. In FY22, we engaged staff in reflecting on how harm can occur in evaluation work and what we can do to prevent it in the future. We also consulted experts from GEI and other evaluation experts through panel discussions and other events. The insights gleaned from these inputs will be used in FY23 to evolve IEG’s evaluation practices and develop guidance that can be tested on critical audiences such as partner organizations and other evaluators.

The FY23 work program will be flexible, in keeping with the need for faster, more timely lessons for rapidly changing circumstances. As a result, only six thematic evaluations and three Country Program Evaluations are planned for the fiscal year. In line with the Bank Group’s outcome orientation agenda, IEG will focus on country outcomes and lessons of high relevance to Bank Group teams and clients.

FY22 marked another year defined by the impact of COVID-19. The crisis in Ukraine increased the pressure on development organizations. At IEG, we snapped into action to meet these challenges, rethinking assumptions on the best ways to deliver work, innovating new ways of finding and sharing important, just-in-time insights, and developing greener and more responsible ways of working. IEG has shown itself to be highly adaptable and innovative. In FY23, we’ll continue to refine these innovations, enhance our data and knowledge management, reduce harm in evaluation, and deliver insights where and when they are needed most.

Learn more about our FY23 plans and goals in the FY23 Work Program and Budget.