An Independent Review of World Bank Support to ... - DAG Ethiopia

instruments themselves. However, TA projects have been significantly hampered bylimited capacity at entry.4.56 Use of the IDF grant instrument for the CSRCB seems to have been a convenientchoice that allowed the Bank to stay engaged in civil service reform, a core reform area,in a situation where the Government neither wanted a dominant role of the Bank, norwanted to take IDA loans for TA activities. Therefore, the significance of this IDF forfuture lending operations was far greater than indicated by the insignificant amountinvolved (compared to other Bank operations). But the opportunity this project offeredwas undermined by an over-ambitious design and weak supervision by the Bank.4.57 Analytical work has been effectively undertaken, generally with high standards,and clearly linked to Bank objectives under lending/grant operations. However, capacitybuilding aspects have not always been given sufficient emphasis in this work, and thefindings and recommendations made on capacity building have had limited impact onGovernment decisions and little influence on design of capacity building components ofthe credit operations in health and education. The experience in the roads sector issomewhat better as the 1996 Transport Sector Memorandum did influence the design ofsupport to the RSDP, though mainly at the institutional level. On the other hand,analytical work (PER, CFAA, CPAR, Woreda and Municipal Studies) have beeninstrumental in designing the Bank’s adjustment lending/grant operations in regards tocapacity building in public sector and public expenditure management.4.58 Donor Collaboration: Ethiopia is a pilot country for donor coordination andharmonization under many initiatives such as the Special Program for Africa (with focuson macroeconomic and budget support) and the OECD Harmonization Initiative. Also theBank’s support since 1996 to the three service providing sectors has been within theframework of sector development programs agreed among all important donors in therespective sectors. It is therefore not surprising that donor collaboration in Ethiopia is asgood as it gets in Africa. Significant progress has been made in ensuring regularcoordination between the government and all donors at the sector level, establishing jointpreparation and review missions for SDPs and more recently for budget support. This isnot to say that collaboration is always perfectly arranged and smoothly implemented.Some donors (e.g. USAID in education and WHO in health) still maintain specificinterests, disagree on modalities, fail to deliver agreed contributions on time, or haveobjectives partly outside the agreed frameworks. But the Bank has also had difficulties inaligning itself with harmonized procedures and has run supervision/review missionsseparate from (and therefore duplicating) agreed joint sector missions. However, overall,the direction in collaboration is encouraging.4.59 Utilization of Local Capacity: The use of local expertise outside the public sectorhas been limited to (i) consultancy as part of studies and (ii) engineering consultancy assub-contractors for design and supervision of major road works funded by the Bank. Theextent to which the Ethiopian private sector and NGOs have been able to participate hasbeen restricted by the near destruction of these sectors under the Derg regime and hesitantgovernment facilitation of and support for private sector development and civil societyinstitutions.29