Bangladesh is widely acknowledged to be a development success story, having reached lower-middle-income status less than 50 years after its independence in 1971. This Country Program Evaluation (CPE) assesses the development effectiveness of the World Bank Group’s engagement with Bangladesh over the past decade. It reviews the extent to which the Bank Group’s support was effective and strategically focused and how it evolved to remain relevant during the decade in relation to changes in country context, lessons from experience, development priorities, and Bank Group corporate priorities.

The evaluation includes a special focus on two thematic areas supported by the Bank Group and of particular relevance to Bangladesh: the jobs agenda and clean energy. In these and other areas, the CPE assesses how well the Bank Group leveraged partnerships to achieve objectives. Finally, the report provides lessons that may be of relevance to the next Country Partnership Framework (CPF) with Bangladesh, which is expected in FY23. The lessons may also be relevant to countries facing similar challenges.