Strategic Framework for the Bank's Involvement in Global Programs

In consultation with U.N. agencies, donors, developing countries, and other partners, management should develop a global strategy for the Bank's involvement in global programs, approved by the Board and periodically updated, that:

• Exploits the Bank's comparative advantage as a multisectoral development financing institution with a global reach and strong capacity in policy analysis

• Gives greater prominence to alleviating poverty and to addressing global public policies that limit developing countries' prospects for rapid, sustainable, poverty reducing growth

• Fosters stronger links between global programs and the Bank's Regional and country operations in prioritizing its global programming activities

• Ensures that global programs add value beyond what the Bank can accomplish through partnerships at the country level

Linking Financing to Priorities

Management should develop a financing plan for high-priority programs, particularly for those providing genuine global public goods, whether in the form of global policies, new products, technologies, knowledge, or practices that benefit the poor. This requires:

• Identifying underfunded long-term global public-goods programs that benefit the poor - such as a global health research and product development network for diseases that disproportionately affect the poor - and using the Bank's convening power to mobilize additional resources for them

• Improving the criteria and procedures relating to the DGF's Window 2 to create a more rational and informed approach to funding "venture capital" programs, in which the DGF only provides initial support

• Developing a policy on the use of trust funds in the context of the overall strategy for global programs

Selectivity and Oversight of the Global Program Portfolio

Management should establish approval, oversight, evaluation and exit/reauthorization criteria and procedures for Bank-supported global programs that will help them to add value to the Bank's mission. This includes:

• Streamlining and clarifying the eligibility and approval criteria for Bank selectivity and grant support and instituting a two stage approval process for global programs at the concept and appraisal stages

• Sharpening and more rigorously applying the subsidiarity criterion for approval and grant support

• Separating Bank oversight from the implementing management and, for Bank staff serving on the governing bodies of global programs, clarifying their roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities through standard terms of reference and training

• Allocating money for oversight and money that the network anchor and Regional staff can use to operationalize global programs in the Bank's Regional operations

• Instituting clear, well-planned, and well executed reauthorization/exit processes, and ensuring that programs that the Bank spins off have an independent identity, accountability for results, and a good chance of succeeding

Governance and Management of Individual Programs

Management should work with its global partners to develop and apply universally accepted standards of good governance, management, results-orientation, and evaluation to all Bank-supported global programs. These include:

• Legal status and/or written charters, as appropriate

• Transparent selection criteria and processes for board chairs and board members; clarifying their roles, responsibilities, accountabilities, and constituencies; and giving them authority to direct and oversee the program, its policies, and its budget

• Voice of the Bank's client countries on the governing bodies of global programs for better balance between industrial and developing countries

• Guidelines on conflicts of interests, on the roles of NGOs and the private sector in governing bodies, and on the roles and quality of advisory boards

• Designation of evaluation and auditing as functions of the governing body, not the program management, with results that should routinely be made available to program financiers and other stakeholders

Evaluation

IEG should include global programs in its standard evaluation and reporting processes. This includes:

• Working with the Bank's global partners to develop international standards for the evaluation of global programs

• Reviewing selected program-level evaluations conducted by Bank-supported global programs (both internally and externally managed), much as IEG reviews other self-evaluations at the project and country levels.