Evaluating Country Programmes - OECD Online Bookshop

OECD 1999
Country Assistance Evaluation in the Multilateral Development Banks
referred to in an increasing number of strategy documents. However, gender gaps
still need to be more rigorously analysed in both strategies and evaluations in
terms of their measurement, patterns, causes, implications and needed actions.
Efforts need to be made to identify countries and regions with disproportionately
large gaps and where efforts have been successful or unsuccessful to reduce them.
Country strategies need to reflect these efforts and evaluations need to identify
practices and lessons.
The World Bank’s recent Yemen CAR addressed the gender gap issue. It found
that the Bank’s impact had been modest and recommended that priority should be
placed on female literacy, improving the health and nutritional status of women and
improving women’s access to financial services. The Mozambique CAR found that
attention to gender issues was sporadic due to a lack of an explicit gender strategy.
Institutions need to identify countries and regions with disproportionately large gender gaps
and reflect efforts to reduce the gap in country strategies. Evaluations should focus on country experience
in this area.
Governance
Governance issues are not extensively covered in country strategies; they are
often delicate and usually addressed in countries emerging from upheaval and
requiring reconstruction assistance. In World Bank strategies where governance has
been addressed, coverage has been uneven, often focusing on diagnosis rather
than corrective action or Bank support. Future CAS efforts will focus on addressing
economic aspects of corruption including diagnosis and analysis, causes, impact
and potential Bank activity. The appropriate mix of approaches will depend heavily
on country circumstances.
Coverage of governance issues in CAEs has been light. Reference was made in
the Sri Lanka CAN of the Bank’s assistance not being sufficiently supportive of ethnic
harmony. The Albania CAR provided some discussion of the need for improving
governance and quality of public administration of state institutions in light of
developments in the country.
Institutions need to identify governance and civil society issues when preparing strategies and
appropriate action to address these concerns. Evaluations can focus on the situation in the country
and relate if and how Bank instruments have addressed it.
Environment
Coverage of environmental issues in country strategies varies widely. In some of
the World Bank CASs, the environment is covered extensively in various sectors and
in others there is little more than a mention of a national environmental action plan.
161