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The Independent Evaluation Group’s (IEG) review of the World Bank’s support to Middle-Income Countries (MICs) is being carried out as described in the approach paper for the evaluation. As the review commences, it has also benefited from helpful suggestions and advice from interested parties including Executive Directors (EDs) of the World Bank, outside academics and development practitioners, and Bank staff working on MICs. Taking on board that guidance, the approach has been further developed to help increase the review’s emphasis on a few other key issues noted below.
 The coordination of services across the World Bank Group
Interest has been expressed in getting a better understanding of the experience in MICs with the coordination of services across the Bank Group. This includes examining how far the complementarity or synergy has been exploited between the services of the Bank (IBRD), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). Several commentators felt that this would be particularly interesting and relevant in respect of the Bank’s Group’s support for private sector development in MICs. The IEG review will examine this issue.
Diversity in MICs
IEG’s approach carefully notes the diversity within the MIC grouping and this point has been confirmed and emphasized in further discussions. The review will analyze, as far as practical, the experiences across different classifications within the broad MIC category. Indeed this IEG review expects some findings to be strategic in nature, and therefore of relevance to the MIC group as a whole, and others to be pertinent only for subsets of the group.
Client country perspectives
Following on from the point about diversity of MICs, this IEG review would benefit from a wide variety of input from client country perspectives. IEG’s approach is including a specific client survey across a selection of countries, as well as field work and interviews with interested parties. Outreach on the web and through other avenues during the course of the review will also be used to solicit input from those with an interest in the topic.
MICs and financial crises
Several commentators have welcomed IEG’s attention to this important issue. The IEG approach will try to examine elements of the Bank’s role in these situations, including its attention to poverty, structural reforms, and long-term relationships amongst development partners.
Learning
Many commentators expressed optimism that the rigorous and objective approach outlined by IEG will provide a good base to learn lessons from the Bank’s experience in MICs. IEG will build on that encouragement and ensure that its approach makes a strong effort to inform interested parties as they continue to consider options for models of Bank engagement with MICs in the future.
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