World Bank Country-Level Engagement on Governance and Anticorruption: An Evaluation of the 2007 Strategy and Implementation Plan

The idea that well-governed countries are better able to foster economic opportunities, deliver services to the poor, and fight corruption became prominent among aid agencies in the 1990s.The World Bank played a leading role in addressing these issues and, in 2007, it adopted a new governance and anticorruption (GAC) strategy to help countries develop accountable and effective states.

A new study by the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) assesses the relevance and the effectiveness of the World Bank's 2007 strategy. To improve performance in this area, the study recommends a number of innovations: new financial instruments, better ways of measuring governance performance, a more harmonized and consistent approach to risk management, and a more strategic allocation of the World Bank’s internal resources.

Navin Girishankar who led the study will address the following questions:

• Are World Bank operations addressing governance and anticorruption?
• Is the World Bank contributing to good governance in developing countries?
• Is the World Bank's 2007 governance and anti-corruption strategy making a difference?
• What are lessons learned for the broader development community?