Opportunities and Challenges from Working in Partnership

Partnerships and trust funds are big business for the World Bank Group. It participates in around 126 global partnership programs and administers more than 1000 trust funds which have become a significant source of revenue for the Bank Group and its clients. Partnership and trust funds offer opportunities for the Bank to benefit from partners skills and resources, extend its reach, and innovate. Some programs and funds are complementary to the Bank or fill gaps, for example on global public goods. IEG has found that most partnership programs tackle relevant development problems and that the Bank often makes strong contributions. But there are also risks, for example proliferation of uncoordinated or competing initiatives and high transaction costs. A key challenge facing the World Bank Group, therefore, is to make sure that its engagements in partnerships and trust funds create shared value for its client countries and support its goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity goals. As emphasized in the World Bank Group strategy, engaging in strong and well-aligned partnerships can help the Group enhance its contributions to global development, but the evaluation experience summarized in this note suggests that there is room to improve. IEG has recommended reforms (summarized at the end of this note) to help the Bank address these challenges via internal reforms to ensure selectivity, routine corporate oversight, and policies and standards around partnership governance, engagement strategies for individual programs, empowerment of staff serving on partnership boards, and results frameworks.