79723

                                The World Bank Group and the Global Food Crisis:
                                An Evaluation of the World Bank Group’s Response
                                        and Draft Management Response

                                   Report to the Board of Executive Directors from the
                                       Committee on Development Effectiveness

                                               Meeting of March 13, 2013


        The Committee on Development Effectiveness considered The World Bank Group and the Global Food
Crisis: An Evaluation of the World Bank Group’s Response (CODE2013-0009) and Draft Management Response
(CODE2013-0010).
        The Committee thanked IEG for the informative and insightful evaluation and welcomed Management’s
response. Members appreciated the valuable lessons emerging from the evaluation, particularly with respect to
issues around resource allocation, targeting of support, appropriate expectations of outcomes, and broader
implications for project processing. Members congratulated Management on the effectiveness of the Bank’s swift
response to the crisis. Members particularly welcomed the constructive cooperation between IEG and
Management during the process of finalizing the evaluation.
        The Committee underscored the need for added flexibility in the redeployment of administrative
resources—both financial and human—in crisis situations, given the Bank’s constrained resources. While the
report noted that speed of the program may have come at the expense of quality, members felt that the Bank
should not be afraid to admit that inevitably there are trade-offs with fast-track programs, particularly given
unpredictable events or political economy concerns. Keeping in mind resource constraints, members urged
Management to balance the need for more active implementation and supervision with enhanced efforts on
monitoring and evaluation.
         Members warmly welcomed the reduced median project preparation time from roughly 236 days to 71
days for Global Food Crisis Response Program (GFRP) projects, and asked about the implications for non-crisis
projects going forward. Members agreed that establishing country-level early warning systems would allow for
rapid scaling-up of emergency responses in vulnerable countries, improved response capacity in crisis times,
earlier planning, and more effective interventions. Members commented about lessons learned for the long-term
and the need to focus more on improving agricultural productivity, infrastructure and social protection programs.
With respect to targeting the Bank’s support, the Committee supported the call for improved in-country data
collection and analysis, to better target and monitor outcomes.





    This report is not an approved record.