Part II: Achieving Sustainable Development
This is the second part of the IEG: Annual Review of Development Effectiveness for the World Bank. Here are the main points from the report, which is focused on sustainable development in the second half:
- The World Bank ahs a critical role to play in assisting nations in addressing environmental challenges and promoting sustainable practices.
- Sustainable development, poverty reduction, and economic growth are not mutually exclusive.
-The World Bank has evolved over the years with how they handle environmental issues, but need to do more promoting sustainable development for poverty reduction.
- Environmental issues are also quality of life issues
- The process of “mainstreaming” environmental sustainability for development projects and projects in other sectors is not as good as hoped, it is up to The Bank to lead the way and encourage better/smarter practices.
- Most of the funding for sustainable development is going into Africa.
- Bank awareness of biodiversity and other environmental issues is pretty good, and there’s been a large increase in funding for these types of projects in the last decade.
- Global and international environmental policies and sustainable development practices need to be developed.
I see the validity in encouraging sustainable development. On a note outside the report, I do want to point out that building roads isn’t necessarily an unsustainable practice. There has been a large push to mass transit in the west as an effective way of moving people, but in many emerging economies pollution issues have more to do with industry and factories than building roads. Steel for rail has to come from some rendering process, and even solar panels require a lot of chemicals. No one really considers what to do with unused sustainable energy products since that hasn’t become an issue yet, but what’s going to happen when the solar panels in the farms need to be replaced? Can they be reused or are we creating waste that is more difficult to deal with? Roads require maintenance, but so does all types of infrastructure. Traffic impacts and pollution from cars is another regulatory mechanism completely.
Showing posts with label IEG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IEG. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Thursday, November 05, 2009
IEG: Annual Review of Development Effectiveness Part 1 Review
Some interesting things from Part I of the IEG Report:
>New data standards and an associated website should be coming soon in order to help ensure that data associated with development is measured the same way in all countries. The Bank is a co chair on the PARIS 21 (Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century) and the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is the agency releasing a web-based tool for standardization of measurements.
>A large portion of this report deals with the gathering of base-line data for both development measures and environmental impacts. In Agriculture, Europe and Central Asia had base-line data for 71% of their projects, East Asia and the Pacific had 80% and the Middle East and North Africa had 50%. If there weren’t base-lines established before development, they are establishing them now with new projects. This is good news for those trying to examine trends in data.
>Finished projects are usually rated lower than projects at midpoint. This is likely because (according to the report) bad information is revealed toward the end of projects.
>IEG Report suggest continued resources be put into monitoring and evaluation of projects to ensure their success.
>There has been a decline in cost-benefit analysis/economic rate of return reporting for projects that are in the feasibility study stage and are later approved. Some areas (like the CIS) tend to have these studies done more than other areas and that’s likely because there other agencies and investors involved. Especially with energy and water infrastructure, most companies are going to run the financial analysis before committing to work with The Bank.
Full Report Here
>New data standards and an associated website should be coming soon in order to help ensure that data associated with development is measured the same way in all countries. The Bank is a co chair on the PARIS 21 (Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century) and the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is the agency releasing a web-based tool for standardization of measurements.
>A large portion of this report deals with the gathering of base-line data for both development measures and environmental impacts. In Agriculture, Europe and Central Asia had base-line data for 71% of their projects, East Asia and the Pacific had 80% and the Middle East and North Africa had 50%. If there weren’t base-lines established before development, they are establishing them now with new projects. This is good news for those trying to examine trends in data.
>Finished projects are usually rated lower than projects at midpoint. This is likely because (according to the report) bad information is revealed toward the end of projects.
>IEG Report suggest continued resources be put into monitoring and evaluation of projects to ensure their success.
>There has been a decline in cost-benefit analysis/economic rate of return reporting for projects that are in the feasibility study stage and are later approved. Some areas (like the CIS) tend to have these studies done more than other areas and that’s likely because there other agencies and investors involved. Especially with energy and water infrastructure, most companies are going to run the financial analysis before committing to work with The Bank.
Full Report Here
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
World Bank: ECA 20 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Lots of publications coming out of the World Bank this week on ECA (Europe and Central Asia) which includes memberstates of the CIS too. The summary of the report on 20 years after the fall is linked here.
It looks like a pretty mixed bag of successes and failures, but transportation infrastrucre seems to have improved. In general, World Bank project ratings have improved. These ratings are from the report linked earlier today from the IEG.
Here's an interesting footnote though on how countries are classified:
The International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook (October 2009) projects GDP in Centraland Eastern Europe and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (the former Soviet Union excluding the Baltic States) to contract by 5 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively, in 2009. In this book, Central and Eastern Europe comprises Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania,
Serbia, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. Turkey is part of the World Bank’s ECA region but is not a transition country; thus, it is added selectively to the discussion. The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova,
the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Georgia is not part of the CIS but is included in the group because its economy shares many features of the other countries.
Looks like I'll have to add the IMF's outlook from last month to my reading list.
It looks like a pretty mixed bag of successes and failures, but transportation infrastrucre seems to have improved. In general, World Bank project ratings have improved. These ratings are from the report linked earlier today from the IEG.
Here's an interesting footnote though on how countries are classified:
The International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook (October 2009) projects GDP in Centraland Eastern Europe and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (the former Soviet Union excluding the Baltic States) to contract by 5 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively, in 2009. In this book, Central and Eastern Europe comprises Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania,
Serbia, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. Turkey is part of the World Bank’s ECA region but is not a transition country; thus, it is added selectively to the discussion. The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova,
the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Georgia is not part of the CIS but is included in the group because its economy shares many features of the other countries.
Looks like I'll have to add the IMF's outlook from last month to my reading list.
World Bank Performance Review 2009
The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) just came out with the 2009 report for World Bank project performance. Here's some info on the IEG from the introduction of the report:
"The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) is an independent, three-part unit within the World Bank Group. IEG-World Bank is charged with evaluating the activities of the IBRD (The World Bank) and IDA, IEG-IFC focuses on assessment of IFC’s work toward private sector development, and IEG-MIGA evaluates the contributions of MIGA
guarantee projects and services. IEG reports directly to the Bank’s Board of Directors through the Director-General, Evaluation."
Once I get through this 179 page report I'll be writing about it. For now, here is the direct link to the full report
"The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) is an independent, three-part unit within the World Bank Group. IEG-World Bank is charged with evaluating the activities of the IBRD (The World Bank) and IDA, IEG-IFC focuses on assessment of IFC’s work toward private sector development, and IEG-MIGA evaluates the contributions of MIGA
guarantee projects and services. IEG reports directly to the Bank’s Board of Directors through the Director-General, Evaluation."
Once I get through this 179 page report I'll be writing about it. For now, here is the direct link to the full report
