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

OVERVIEW
The relationship between country and sector
units also needs to be rebalanced to ensure
that the country-focused model is
complemented by appropriate attention to
regional and global priorities. And incentives
for delivering quality services and results need
to be strengthened.
Management has recently introduced a series
of steps to tackle many of these organizational
constraints under the Matrix Leadership Team
and the Knowledge and Learning Council. A
Managing Director has been tasked with
providing leadership for the modernization
agenda and several initiatives are underway.
The empirical evidence in this evaluation is
relevant for that decision-making process to
identify additional actions needed to achieve
the Bank’s strategic objectives. The unfinished
task of designing incentives and operational
processes that support operational needs must
be addressed urgently. The main adjustments
proposed by IEG are described below.
Incentives
Institutional incentives: Under guidance
of the Knowledge and Learning Council,
the Bank should enhance the incentives
and resources for effective sharing and use
of internal and external knowledge across
the Bank. Develop and implement an
integrated approach to enhance resources and
incentives for documentation and sharing of
key lessons from country experience,
including through thematic groups, and for
field-based staff to access and share
knowledge. Develop and implement
monitoring systems to track use of knowledge
from relevant operations and AAA from
other Regions, and from DEC, to assess AAA
effectiveness and monitor its use by clients.
Staff incentives: Management should
revisit the performance management
system to transparently reflect
performance that goes beyond traditional
deliverables by ensuring that staff are
recognized for (a) sharing of knowledge
and collaboration across sectors, and (b)
the quality and results of operations for
which they are responsible.
Processes
Redefine the purpose, process, and
frequency of sector strategy papers as a
more modest five-yearly report on the
“state-of-the-sector” and provide adequate
resources for strategic ESW and business
development. Reflect in sector reports
emerging good practice and operational
experience in different country contexts to
staff and external partners. Building on the
experience of the Latin America and
Caribbean Region, provide centralized
funding within regional vice presidencies for
strategic ESW, business development, and
global and regional public goods independent
of CMU budgets and work program
agreements (either from a more substantial
pool with the chief economist, or at sector
department level).
Quality: Strengthen mechanisms to
enhance the focus on quality by (a)
strengthening the peer review process, quality
enhancement reviews, and mid-term reviews
for quality through enhanced collaboration
between Regions and sector anchors; (b)
ensuring dual accountability of country and
sector directors for quality; (c) strengthening
quality assurance mechanisms for non-lending
technical assistance; and (d) establishing a
quality assurance mechanism for feedback on
quality, independent of line management.
Budget: To encourage cross sector and
cross-regional collaboration, management
should streamline and simplify the cross
support budget settlement process and
introduce flexibility in budgetary rules to
allow sharing of tasks and budgets across
organizational units.
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