mation on IEs across the Bank to include in a database available on its website. • Methodology notes: As early as 2000, the Latin America and the Caribbean Region and the PREM Network spearheaded a handbook for practitioners on using IE to evaluate development projects (Baker 2000). In the past decade, the World Bank has produced a myriad of guidance notes on conducting and using IEs for a range of audiences, from evaluators to development practitioners to policy makers (some examples include Gertler and others 2011; Khandker, Koolwal, and Samad 2010 ). • Meta-analyses: The World Bank shares lessons learned from IEs by synthesizing them in policy research reports. There has been meta-analysis work on conditional cash transfers (CCTs), local governance, educational accountability, social safety nets, and interventions to reduce malnutrition (Fiszbein and others 2009; Bruns, Filmer, and Patrinos 2011; Mansuri and Rao 2010; IEG 2010, 2011). • Data: DEC’s Data Group has been partnering with countries and other institutions to collect microlevel data through surveys. In addition, an increasing number of Bank Group-funded projects have incorporated an M&E framework that requires implementing agencies to collect data on monitoring indicators. World Bank projects have spent an estimated $2 billion for M&E in the past 10 years, about a quarter of this for data collection.11 With the recently enacted Open Data Policy, many of these resources are now available and could serve as critical inputs for IEs.12 However, their utilization rate remains low. Research teams also help project teams develop a strategy for baseline and follow-up data collection, design the questionnaires and samples, train enumerators, and supervise data collection so that data are more applicable to IEs (World Bank 2010).
Production of World Bank Group Impact Evaluations There has been an increase in the production of IEs at the World Bank over the past decade, partly attributable to the IE initiatives described above. As seen in figure 2.2, the annual production of World Bank IEs increased markedly after 2005 when DIME was established, from an average of 16 IEs initiated per year between 1999 and 2004 to an average of 57 IEs per year from 2005 to 2010.13 Since the creation of DIME in 2005, the advent of other IE initiatives has further accelerated IE production at the World Bank. For instance, the number of new IEs initiated rose from an annual average of 40 in 2005–06 to 53 in 2007–08 (which corresponded with the roll-out of SIEF) and further increased to 85 in 2009–10 (which coincided with the creation of additional IE thematic programs). In parallel with the increase in IEs at the World Bank, a growing number of World Bank lending operations have been subject to an IE: 5 percent of lending operations approved between FY00 and FY04 were linked to an IE(s), compared with 8 percent between FY05 and FY10.14 A further decomposition in recent years also reveals an increasing trend: 10 percent of projects approved in FY07–
Impact Evaluations at the World Bank Group 23