Improving development effectiveness by showing what works
The World Bank Group has twin goals: to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. To achieve these goals, the World Bank Group needs to better understand what works and why, to draw lessons and good practices from experience, deepening the evidence base to inform decision making and future action. IEG evaluations seek to provide objective assessments to ensure that the Bank Group is accountable for achieving its development objectives. IEG is one of the 4 units that ensure oversight and accountability at the World Bank Group: the Inspection Panel and the Independent Evaluation Group reporting to the Board of Executive Directors; the Internal Audit reporting to the President and to the Audit Committee; the Integrity Vice Presidency reporting to the President.
Expanding evaluation capacity
IEG also provides training and advisory monitoring and evaluation services to Bank Group client countries. Through this evaluation capacity development, IEG is readying a network of capable evaluators to perform M&E services in their own countries and regions. IEG is a partner in the , the , and the Evaluation Cooperation Group.
Director-General, evaluation
Alison Evans, a United Kingdom national, assumed her position as Director-General, Evaluation at the World Bank Group on January 3, 2019. Before her current role, Dr. Evans was the Chief Commissioner of the UK’s Independent Commission for Aid Impact based in London, England where she provided strong leadership and vision to the transformation of that organization's scrutiny mandate. Alison Evans brings more than 25 years of international development experience, spanning policy, research and evaluation across diverse geopolitical and multicultural environments. Prior to joining ICAI, she was Executive Director of the Overseas Development Institute, the UK’s leading international development think tank, helping to steer new strategic directions and a strong results focus for the organization. She worked for six years as a Senior Economist at the World Bank, as a member of the team producing the WDR 1997 and as a Senior Evaluation Specialist in OED. She earned a Ph.D. in Development Studies from the University of Sussex and a Master's in Economics and Politics from the University of Cambridge..
History
Evaluation of World Bank projects began in 1970, when President Robert McNamara created an Operations Evaluation Unit in the bank's Programming and Budgeting Department. In 1973, the unit was renamed the Operations Evaluation Department, and thereafter gained increasing independence from bank management. The International Finance Corporation established an evaluation unit in 1984, and in 1995, the unit increased its independence under a new name, the Operations Evaluation Group. The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency created an evaluation office in 2002. In July 2006 the Board of the Bank Group integrated the independent evaluation functions of the World Bank, IFC, and MIGA into a single unit, the Independent Evaluation Group.
