Beyond the Dollars: Ensuring World Bank Evolution Means Evidence and Impact Revolution, Too

 

The World Bank’s evolution is a large part of the international response to global challenges like climate change and pandemic risks, with significant attention on amounts and sources of money. But less attention is paid to an inconvenient truth: few policymakers and experts know what works to make measurable progress against global challenges. Few programs are rigorously evaluated, and, particularly in the climate space, results are often so poorly defined and measured that policies and programs fail to achieve their lofty goals.
 
Spending resources on the most effective programs and policies will be key to meeting a newly revamped mission. The potential rate of return is immense: use of evidence could save hundreds of millions in mistargeted or ineffective spending—and help reduce trade-offs with funding for poverty reduction and development more generally.
 
This high-level panel will explore ways to make genuine progress on development and global challenges, expanding beyond a narrow focus on mobilizing financing to examine how to enhance the impact of public and aid resources. Speakers will discuss how policymakers can use evidence and evaluation to ensure that resources are spent more effectively and to inform investment—and disinvestment—decisions. The panel discussion will draw from CGD’s Working Group on New Evidence Tools for Policy Impact and related CGD analysis.