Selectivity in Country Strategies

The World Bank Group (WBG) has adopted a new strategy which sets two ambitious goals of ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. To operationalize the twin goals, the WBG is developing a more evidence-based and selective country engagement model, the Country Partnership Framework (CPF). The Bank Group s activities in any country will be at the intersection of what the Systematic Country Diagnostic reveals, the government s own development priorities and the WBG s comparative advantage (OPCS). While the CPF is sharpening the WBG s focus on strategic selectivity in its country programs, the issue is longstanding. This paper is a first attempt at piecing together the various strands of evidence in order to understand the role and the practice of selectivity in the WBG s country strategies, and explores the link between selectivity and country program outcomes. It reviews selectivity in 105 CASs, including Country Partnership Strategies, during FY09-13. It also provides a synthesis analysis on selectivity issues of 22 CAEs, including Country Partnership Evaluations (CPEs), conducted by IEG during FY05-14. The findings demonstrate that selectivity matters for the overall development outcome of CASs while controlling for other variables such as country ownership, results framework, and GDP per capita. Moreover, the estimations indicate that selectivity is more important in countries with high levels of extreme poverty. Finally, the paper concludes with the key lessons and issues for further research.