'The Road to Results: Designing and Conducting Effective Development Evaluations' presents concepts and procedures for evaluation in a development context. It provides procedures and examples on how to set up a monitoring and evaluation system, how to conduct participatory evaluations and do social mapping, and how to construct a "rigorous" quasi-experimental design to answer an impact question. The text begins with the context of development evaluation and how it arrived where it is today. It then discusses current issues driving development evaluation, such as the Millennium Development Goals and the move from simple project evaluations to the broader understandings of complex evaluations. The topics of implementing 'Results-based Measurement and Evaluation' and constructing a 'Theory of Change' are emphasized throughout the text. Next, the authors take the reader down 'the road to results, ' presenting procedures for evaluating projects, programs, and policies by using a 'Design Matrix' to help map the process. This road includes: determining the overall approach, formulating questions, selecting designs, developing data collection instruments, choosing a sampling strategy, and planning data analysis for qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method evaluations. The book also includes discussions on conducting complex evaluations, how to manage evaluations, how to present results, and ethical behavior--including principles, standards, and guidelines. The final chapter discusses the future of development evaluation. This comprehensive text is an essential tool for those involved in development evaluation.

The Independent Evaluation Group’s (IEG) Results and Performance of the World Bank Group (RAP) is a comprehensive assessment of World Bank Group performance, drawing on recent IEG evaluations. The report also examines how effectively the World Bank Group addressed current and emerging development challenges. This year’s RAP focuses on gender integration in World Bank Group operations, building on previous examinations of World Bank Group approaches to risk management (RAP 2013) and the Millennium Development Goals (RAP 2014). 'No country, community, or economy can achieve its potential or meet the challenges of the 21st century without the full and equal participation of women and men, girls and boys.' This statement from the World Bank Group website’s topic page on gender states the essential importance of gender for development. In line with that view, the World Bank Group made considerable progress in addressing gender issues during the past 15 years. Gender has been a prominent corporate objective since the first World Bank Group strategy, introduced in 2001. This year, a new World Bank Group gender strategy has been launched—the first joint World Bank†“International Finance Corporation (IFC) strategy to focus on gender. It is an important step toward sharpening the corporate focus on gender and improving the approach to gender mainstreaming. This report describes how mechanisms for integrating gender in projects and country strategies are working, and to what extent they provide meaningful information about progress and results on gender. The analysis aims to inform World Bank Group efforts to strengthen the approach to documenting, assessing, and evaluating results as part of the new strategy rollout. The report also reviews how effectively the World Bank Group’s portfolio and country programs deliver results, and its system for monitoring the implementation of IEG’s recommendations.

IEG's Results and Performance of the World Bank Group 2021 report, also known as RAP 2021, assesses the World Bank Group's performance by analyzing the achievement of project and program objectives through validated ratings. The World Bank's outcome ratings steadily improved from FY10 onward and increased by an impressive 9 percentage points in FY20. The largest annual increase over the past five years. IFC's development outcome ratings increased for the first time in 10 years in all the industry groups and MIGA's continued to increase, as has been the case over the past decade. The RAP 2021 carries out an in-depth analysis of recent trends, for both the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, to identify possible drivers behind the increase in project outcome ratings. The report also presents a novel analysis to measure the extent to which the World Bank either repeats project designs or introduces novelty to successor projects. This allowed IEG to detect when teams took informed risk and introduced new elements in projects and assess the effect of this behavior on outcome ratings. The report also analyzes the World Bank's selection of indicators and use of targets to understand how measurement practices affect ratings and performance. Results point to the need to complement project ratings data with associated evidence of outcomes achieved in client countries, which supports the centrality of the outcome orientation agenda.

An effective state is essential to achieving socio-economic and sustainable development. With the advent of globalization, there are growing pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to the demands of internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development effectiveness, and delivery of tangible results. Governments, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, NGOs, civil society, international organizations and donors are among the stakeholders interested in better performance. As demands for greater accountability and real results have increased, there is an attendant need for enhanced results-based monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs, and projects. This Handbook provides a comprehensive ten-step model that will help guide development practitioners through the process of designing and building a results-based monitoring and evaluation system. These steps begin with a OC Readiness AssessmentOCO and take the practitioner through the design, management, and importantly, the sustainability of such systems. The Handbook describes each step in detail, the tasks needed to complete each one, and the tools available to help along the way."

The Independent Evaluation Group's (IEG) Results and Performance of the World Bank Group (RAP) is a comprehensive assessment of World Bank Group performance, drawing on recent IEG evaluations. This year's report emphasizes the theme of managing for development results (M4R). The World Bank Group has a long history of Managing for Results and has made good progress on creating a structure and process for results measurement. It has also launched reforms and several initiatives throughout the years to enhance evidence-based management and learning. IEG evidence shows progress but also indicates that strengthening the foundations of results measurement and instilling a culture of evidence-based adaptive management and learning needs a stronger, more systematic, and holistic push. This report reviews the World Bank Group's status regarding M4R and summarizes the organization's approach to and degree of success with integrating M4R'skey principles-measurement of outcomes and use of evidence for adaptive management and learning-to drive results. The report draws on cumulative evidence from the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG)evaluations and learning products to highlight the World Bank Group progress and scope for improvement. The report also explores the World Bank Group's engagement on developing client M4R capacity.

This report addresses IEG's work over the last year, summarizing findings from its evaluations and discussing the trends that are revealed as they relate to the World Bank Group's work. IEG sees that a sharper focus on results and learning from experience are essential.

The Results and Performance of the World Bank Group (RAP) report is an annual review by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) of the development effectiveness of the World Bank Group. The RAP covers the World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and International Development Association), the International Finance Corporation, and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (four of the five institutions of the World Bank Group). The report synthesizes existing evidence from IEG evaluations, validations, and engagements, complemented by analysis of relevant information from other sources (for example, World Bank Group documents). Results and performance are assessed separately for each of the institutions because of their differing time frames, operating models, and clients. The theme this year is environmental sustainability, focusing on selected questions related to the contribution of the World Bank Group to environmental sustainability (chapter 1). This RAP (i) assesses the extent to which the World Bank Group portfolio includes activities that support environmental sustainability (and changes over a 10-year period), (ii) takes stock of how the World Bank Group is measuring its contribution to environmental sustainability, and (iii) presents analysis on the World Bank Group's systems for managing environmental and social risks. The RAP does not seek to provide an overall assessment of the environmental effects of the World Bank Group's projects because data are available only for the subset of projects where environmental goals were the primary objective.