Thursday,
March 17, 2022 / 09:53 AM / Release by World Bank Group / Header Image
Credit: World Bank Group
In June 2020, the Committee on Development
Effectiveness of the Board of Executive Directors the Bank Group asked the
Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) to evaluate the DB indicators, including the
Ease of Doing Business country rankings, to “assess the way that DB aligns with
the Bank Group’s mandate and a viable development framework for client
countries”.
In September 2020, IEG produced an Approach Paper
defining a focus on the assessment of DB’s strategic relevance and
effectiveness for client countries’ reform priorities and to the Bank Group’s
strategic agenda using IEG’s mandated lens of development effectiveness. It
acknowledged parallel work being undertaken by the Bank Group’s Group Internal
Audit and Development Economics Vice Presidency. The three bodies consulted and
exchanged information to assure complementarity.
In March 2021, IEG began producing an Issues Paper for
internal and management review that was submitted to the Committee on
Development Effectiveness on June 29, 2021. It identified six lines of inquiry
for the main DB evaluation.
On September 8, 2021, after internal and peer reviews,
IEG produced a draft final report and shared it, in line with IEG-Bank Group
protocol, with Bank Group management for their factual review and comment. On
September 16, 2021, Bank Group management announced its decision to discontinue
the DB report and released an external audit carried out by the law firm
WilmerHale. Independent Evaluation Group 
On September 20, 2021, the World Bank released the
Development Economics External Panel Review final report.
From Recommendations to
Lessons
The September 16, 2021, Bank Group’s management
statement said, “Going forward, we will be working on a new approach to
assessing the business and investment climate”. In this context and given the
use of multiple other global indicators in reforms, the learning from this
evaluation report is highly relevant.
The following generalized lessons can be drawn from
IEG’s evaluation report:
Lesson 1:
Recognizing the powerful motivational effect of reform indicators, especially
those that facilitate country rankings, this evaluation notes the limitations
in the coverage and guidance offered by any single indicator set on its own and
advocates integrating them with complementary analytic tools and indicators.
Lesson 2: Recognizing the granularity and specificity
of individual reforms in any given country context, the findings from this
evaluation suggest that it is better to avoid using business regulatory or
similar global indicators as explicit reform objectives or monitoring
indicators in Bank Group projects and country strategies focused on improving
the business environment. This does not preclude the use of primary data to
agreed targets that track and measure critical Bank Group institutional
commitments.
Lesson 3: Global indicators coverage and
specifications are improved if, at regular and predictable intervals, they are
updated to reflect learning from research and field experience to (i) improve
links to important development outcomes; (ii) strengthen relevance to the
experience of the subject of coverage; and (iii) adapt to technological changes
in the areas covered by the indicators.
Lesson 4: The DB experience indicates the need for
mechanisms and safeguards to assure the accuracy and validity of Bank Group
global indicator– based reports and related communications, using robust and
transparent standards of evidence.
The ultimate outcome sought with this set of lessons
is to build on the many good practices observed during this evaluation; to
assure that any new approach using evidence-based global indicators considers
their substantial power to motivate and engage client countries in business
environment reform; and to ensure they are used in a balanced and accurate
manner that guides the choice of reform priorities with the greatest
development benefits for their socioeconomic situation.
Download
Full PDF Report Here
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