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Environmental Sustainability: An Evaluation of World Bank Group Support

The document summarizes an evaluation of the World Bank Group's support for environmental sustainability between 1990 and 2007. It finds that while the WBG has made progress, treatment of environmental issues in many country programs remains weak due to external constraints like competing client demands. It recommends elevating sustainability as a priority, taking more integrated cross-sectoral approaches, improving impact measurement, and strengthening partnerships.

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52 views17 pages

Environmental Sustainability: An Evaluation of World Bank Group Support

The document summarizes an evaluation of the World Bank Group's support for environmental sustainability between 1990 and 2007. It finds that while the WBG has made progress, treatment of environmental issues in many country programs remains weak due to external constraints like competing client demands. It recommends elevating sustainability as a priority, taking more integrated cross-sectoral approaches, improving impact measurement, and strengthening partnerships.

Uploaded by

mpatwe
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Environmental Sustainability: An Evaluation

of World Bank Group Support

July 2008
Environment matters for development
► Environmental problems are enormous and increasing
• Climate change
• Air and water pollution
• Soil erosion and desertification
• Water scarcity
• Loss of biodiversity
► Developing countries
are severely affected:
• Growth
• Poverty
► Both public
and private
action are needed

2
WBG timeline: Increased attention since 1990

1970 1980 1990 2000

WB project focus:
"do no harm" IFC: Equator Principles
IFC: Deepening WB: 2003 World Development
attention to project- Report
level impacts from 1991
WBG: 2001 Environmental Strategy
World Development Report
(for Rio summit) (1992)

WB: Increasingly proactive role from 1992


* 4-fold agenda: Safeguards, Stewardship,
Mainstreaming, Global sustainability
MIGA: Enhanced project-
level focus from 1998

3
Key messages
► The World Bank Group has made progress since
1990 as an advocate for the environment

► But treatment of environmental issues in many


WBG country programs remains weak due to
major external and internal constraints

► The WBG needs to increase its engagement and


effectiveness in environmental issues through
– Greater attention in Bank Group and country strategies
– More effective cross-sectoral approaches
– Better measurement of activities and results
– Closer collaboration within the WBG and with partners

4
This evaluation looks broadly at
WBG engagement FY90-07

►Broad coverage: World Bank, IFC, and MIGA


►Evaluation Objectives
– Assessing WBG effectiveness
– Identifying principal external and internal constraints
– Suggesting improvements going forward
►Perspectives: “Do no harm” and “ Do good”
►Methodology
– Literature review
– Portfolio review (variation across WBG due to data
availability)
– 9 country case studies

5
The 9 case study countries come from all
regions and a mix of MICs and LICs
► Together these countries account for 56% of population, 46% of GDP, and over
40% of Bank environmental lending in developing and transition countries.

East Asia China


Latin America Brazil
Middle East/N. Afr Egypt
Sub-Saharan Africa Ghana, Madagascar,
Senegal, Uganda
South Asia India
Europe/Central Asia Russia
6
Findings

7
World Bank

1. Strategies
• 2001 WBG Strategy
• growing but still inadequate attention in country strategies
• even less in country-led PRSPs
2. Lending and grants
• exact amount unknown – at most 5-10% Bank total
• project performance better over time, but M&E still weak
• weaker performance in Africa
3. Nonlending
• as important as lending
• country environmental assessments: helpful where undertaken
• research influential: WDRs ’92, ’03; Greening Industry

8
World Bank (cont)

4. Mainstreaming
• some improvement but still far to go (poverty, health-environment
links, vulnerability)
5. Partnerships
• needs strengthening within WBG and externally
• some good examples (GEF, Pov-Env. Ptnp. )
6. Global public goods
• less emphasis during evaluation period, though now growing
• some good examples (Montreal protocol, carbon finance)

9
IFC
Sustainability in IFC corporate strategies since 2001. Until
recently focus has been on “do no harm”. Move to more “do good”.
1. Environmental and social effects of investment projects
• 67% success rate in meeting IFC requirements and performance
standards
• weak performance in Africa and in certain sectors
• limited attention to broader context

2. Environmental work quality


• appraisal generally good, supervision of financial intermediaries weak

3. “Doing good” initiatives


• M&E system generated insufficient data or still too early to assess
- Environment & Social Sustainability advisory services
- Equator Principles
1
0
MIGA
MIGA’s focus has been primarily on “do no harm”
Sustainability concept just incorporated in core business
1. Environmental and social effects
• Category A projects: better performance and increased
attention to social issues
• Category B projects: less attention, worse performance
2. Environmental work quality
• Strengthened environmental and social issues in underwriting

New policy and performance standards (2007): Go beyond


safeguards to promote sustainability in guaranteed projects

1
1
Looking ahead

1
2
Many constraints need to be confronted

►Clients (public and private)


• Competing demands (e.g. growth,
energy needs, governance, conflict)
• Insufficient client commitment
• Inadequate institutional capacity
and resources

►World Bank Group


• Competing priorities
• Inadequate staff skills and knowledge networks
• Difficulties of coordination across sectors, across WBG, and externally
• Difficulties of taking long-term view and of assessing country-level
impacts beyond individual projects

1
3
The evaluation has four broad
recommendations

1. Elevate environmental sustainability as WBG


priority -- not just more of the same, but a
“transformational” change
2. Move to more integrated, cross-sectoral and
area-based approaches and strengthen staffing
3. Greatly improve ability to measure, monitor,
and evaluate activities and their results
4. Continue to strengthen partnerships

1
4
What would success look like?

► A widely-shared understanding of the critical


role of environmental sustainability to
development
► Clear alignment behind key strategic objectives
► Strong and effective WBG capacity
► Effective internal and external collaboration
► An emphasis on continual learning (from both
success and failure)…

1
5
…and a more sustainable world for all

1
6
Thank you

Evaluation available at:


www.worldbank.org/ieg/environmentalsustainability

Evaluation authors:
John Redwood (IEG-WB)
Jouni Eerikainen (IEG-IFC)
Ethel Tarazona (IEG-MIGA)

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