As Haiti faces the daunting task of recovery after the devastating earthquake, past experiences provide some lessons. Making a crucial difference to the effectiveness of actions seem to be the nature of the immediate response, diagnosis, project design and supervision, use of local capacity, private sector links, coordination among partners, including within the World Bank Group. more...

The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) has undertaken an evaluation of the World Bank Group’s (WBG) response to the current economic crisis, focusing on developments since mid-2008. The purpose of the evaluation is to provide inputs for enhancing the impact of WBG actions. The Approach Paper for the evaluation stated that IEG would deliver two main reports to the Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE) by the end of fiscal 2010 and 2011, as well as interim notes for management and CODE. This first interim note presents a status report on the first year of the WBG response to the crisis. A summary of these findings was presented to the Chair of CODE, the WBG President, and senior management on October 1, 2009, by the IEG Director- General. more...