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

CHAPTER 3
THE PROMISE OF A KNOWLEDGE BANK
the Bank’s knowledge thus has a limited shelf life and limited use value. The only
exception is knowledge produced by DEC, which is widely disseminated to a global
audience, but Bank operations make very limited use of DEC’s knowledge.
3.47 The Bank generates a large volume of knowledge embedded in its
operations but lacks the ability to efficiently capture and share that knowledge.
The Bank’s knowledge report (Knowledge for Development 2011: The State of World Bank
Knowledge Services) estimates that the Bank spends $2.5 billion a year 50 on embedded
knowledge, four times the amount spent on core knowledge products. Embedded
knowledge produced for individual operations suffers from the same production
inefficiencies as explicit knowledge, and is mostly buried within the documentation
of that project or program. Management does not have any system in place to
capture, share, or even track embedded knowledge across the Bank. Given the
volume of embedded knowledge, these inefficiencies need to be addressed urgently.
3.48 The availability of trust funds has led to an increase in core knowledge
production by 50 percent, but the Bank’s budget for knowledge barely increased.
The growing reliance on trust funds generates inefficiencies and risks. While the
share of the Bank’s gross administrative budget spent on core knowledge has
remained steady at approximately 15 percent over the FY02-10 period, trust funds
for core knowledge have more than doubled in real terms over the same period,
growing from $107 million in FY02 to $245 million in FY10. This has resulted in
growing reliance on external financing for the Bank’s core knowledge products, with
external financing for core knowledge growing from 27 percent in FY02 to at least 40
percent in FY10 (Figure 3.5).
Figure 3.5. BETFs Now Finance More Than 40 Percent of the Bank’s Core Knowledge Products
700
600
(Constant 2010 US$ millions)
500
400
300
200
100
40%
31%
36%
28% 31% 30% 33%
28%
27%
73% 72% 72% 69% 70% 67% 69% 64% 60%
BETFs
BB Actuals
0
FY02 FY03 FY04 FY05 FY06 FY07 FY08 FY09 FY10
Source: World Bank database.
57