Water Management in Agriculture : Ten Years of World Bank Assistance, 1994-2004

The purpose of this study is to update the review of World Bank experience in Irrigation (IEG 1994) and to broaden the scope of evaluation to include all water lending for agricultural development. Since that first study, the proportion of World Bank lending for agricultural water management continued to decline, a trend that started in the late 1970s when the sub-sector received 11 percent of the lending, is falling to less than 2 percent in 2001-03. It has since staged a strong recovery and reached over 4 percent in 2005. Commitments for agricultural water management account for a quarter of all lending for agriculture and rural development more recently, this amount increased to one-half. The study is primarily based on the analysis of a wide range of World Bank data and reports, including 131 project appraisal documents, 129 country assistance strategies, and 71 implementation completion reports, covering the Bank's experience in 56 countries. In addition, it draws upon the detailed findings from Independent Evaluation Group's (IEG's) project performance reports, country assistance evaluations, and several special sector and thematic evaluations.