Chapter Highlights •
The private sector is essential to solving a wide range of development issues.
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The key function of monitoring and evaluation is to provide timely, credible, and reliable information to track progress on outcomes, assess performance, and generate knowledge of what works, what does not, and why.
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With the growing role of the private sector in development, the operations of IFC and MIGA have become more prominent in Bank Group activities and the institutions have upgraded their monitoring and evaluation systems apace with new responsibilities and emerging priorities.
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IFC has continuously strengthened monitoring and evaluation over the past 15 years; MIGA is implementing a self-evaluation system.
The prevailing development paradigm has shifted toward private investment, and the private sector has become an essential element of solutions to a broad range of development issues such as employment, education, health, food security, and social inclusion. The roles of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) have grown apace within the World Bank Group. Ten years ago they represented, respectively, 15 percent and 6 percent of the dollar volume of the Bank Group’s financing activities; by 2012 IFC’s share had risen to 29 percent and MIGA had kept its share at the same level. There is great potential for the private sector to solve development problems and much to be learned about how to most effectively facilitate, mobilize, and utilize its contribution. For example, participants in the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, Republic of Korea, noted that effective aid involves participants beyond country governments, including civil society and the private sector. Effective monitoring and evaluating (M&E) systems are essential to learning and accountability on the best ways of catalyzing the private sector for development. They can provide timely, credible, and reliable information to track progress on outcomes, assess performance, and generate knowledge of what works, what does not, and why in efforts to promote private sector development. They also document results and accomplishments—by agency, department, or unit—relative to the resources that were allocated. A results framework is an explicit articulation of the different levels, or chains, of results expected from a particular intervention—project, program, or development strategy (IEG 2012, p. 7). M&E can be a powerful tool that steers actions to results. The M&E1 system comprises the process, methods, and tools for collecting data, tracking progress on outcomes and assessing performance and results. It has three main components: data collection, data quality control, and data analysis. The purpose of the system is to generate information to guide strategic planning, improve effectiveness and operational quality, and enhance accountability and
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Biennial Report on Operations Evaluation