85831
                                            IEG Approach Paper
                        Getting to Poverty: Lessons from the World Bank’s Record on
                             Supporting Poverty Reduction in Country Programs

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

                                             Meeting of February 12, 2014


        The Sub-Committee (SC) of the Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE) considered
IEG’s Approach Paper entitled Getting to Poverty: Lessons from the World Bank’s Record on Supporting
Poverty Reduction in Country Programs (CODE2014-0001).

        The Sub-Committee welcomed the opportunity to discuss the Approach Paper, and acknowledged
the relevance and timeliness of the proposed evaluation in the context of the Bank’s poverty agenda and
change process. Members broadly supported the defined scope and methodology of the proposed
evaluation. They underscored the need for a pragmatic and practical exercise that could feed into the
preparation and design work that is underway with the Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) and the
Country Partnership Framework (CPF) and, in this respect, asked for more clarity on the useful inputs the
evaluation will bring. Members particularly welcomed IEG’s commitment to closely coordinate with
Management by providing early inputs and by sharing knowledge and findings as they emerge to help
optimize the development of the SCD and CPF.

         Members recognized that the evaluation will examine a period where the Bank did not have a
strategic decision and corporate guidance on poverty reduction. They encouraged IEG to place focus on
the factors that explain the diversity of outcomes and the gaps associated with data availability and
quality, as well as the drivers for effective utilization of data in Bank’s engagement with partner countries
and in the formulation of country programs. As regards sampling criteria, while members appreciated
that the evaluation will cover a wide spectrum of countries, including low-income and fragile and conflict
affected situations, many members emphasized the need to consider certain underlying issues related to
poverty such as vulnerability, inequality and gender, in order to reflect the multidimensional nature of
poverty. The Sub-Committee requested that the evaluation capture both lessons-learned and good
practices and inquired whether the title of the evaluation can be phrased in a clearer fashion.

         Members strongly welcomed IEG’s clarification that the evaluation will be conducted within the
ambit of the confirmed policies and the agreed definitions and targets that the Board and the Governors
have endorsed. While the evaluation is proposed to focus on extreme poverty reduction, members
cautioned that poverty reduction is expressed as part of the WBG twin goals which are intertwined and
that shared prosperity may also contribute to extreme poverty reduction.





    This report is not an approved record.