The Matrix System at Work - Independent Evaluation Group - World ...

APPENDIX D
EXPERIENCE IN THE TRENCHES: RESULTS FROM THE STAFF SURVEY
30. The Bank pays substantial attention to fiduciary duties and safeguards aspects
of projects. A clear majority of staff indicate that the quality assurance system for
lending substantially ensures a high quality of fiduciary aspects (59 percent) and
safeguard aspects (54 percent). There was little variation among Regions on this
question, but fewer than half of staff mapped to HDN and ESSD sectors reported the
quality of both these aspects as being substantially ensured.
31. But the quality assurance system pays less attention to the technical design
and other quality aspects of operations. In the experience of about a third of staff
did the quality assurance system substantially ensure effective use of peer reviews
(34 percent) and quality enhancement reviews (QERs) (33 percent), and for 36
percent did it substantially ensure high quality of technical design. The staff
responses also indicated a lack of effective mechanism to provide independent
feedback on quality and effective supervision for timely feedback. Nineteen percent
of respondents indicated that the current system provides a substantial mechanism
for independent feedback on quality and in the experience of 20 percent there was
substantially effective supervision for timely and frank feedback on projects. There
was little variation among Regions along these dimensions, although staff in Africa
(43 percent, 41 percent) and East Asia and the Pacific (41 percent, 38 percent) report
being less dissatisfied with the peer review and QER processes than in other
Regions, and staff in South Asia report being least satisfied with the extent to which
the system ensures high quality of technical design (26 percent).
32. Anchor units were not effective in improving the quality of regional
operations and providing direct operational support to Regions. Thirteen percent
of staff (including anchor staff) indicated that anchor units substantially enhanced
the quality of regional operations, and for 22 percent of staff, anchors were reported
to provide direct operational support to Regions to a substantial or very large extent.
INCENTIVES: SECTOR- AND ANCHOR UNIT STAFF RECEIVED SUBSTANTIAL ENCOURAGEMENT TO MEET COUNTRY-
SPECIFIC NEEDS, BUT LESS ENCOURAGEMENT TO WORK ACROSS SECTORS OR UTILIZE EXPERTISE ACROSS
ORGANIZATIONAL BOUNDARIES.
33. Sector and anchor unit staff reported receiving substantial encouragement from
sector and country management to meet lending targets and adapt knowledge to
country needs, but much less so to collaborate across sectors and mobilize Bank-wide
technical expertise. Over three-fifths of anchor- and sector-based staff received
substantial or greater encouragement from managers to give priority to meeting
lending targets, and a majority received such encouragement to adapt knowledge to
country needs. But only two-fifths received encouragement from sector management
to collaborate across sectors or to mobilize Bank-wide expertise (and between a
quarter and a third received this encouragement from country management).
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