Assessing the World Bank's health efforts | Promising to try harder

Following up on Kedar's post :

Assessing the World Bank's health efforts | Promising to try harder | The Economist

The economist has this article published the other day on the WB's external assessment. I think it is interesting that of the 220 projects, only 13% had an objective of "reducing poverty" which is the WB's overall mission and guiding principle for its existence.

I think it is great that the World Bank put out this assessment, and didn't hold back. I don't know much about the WB's governance and how projects are approved, but perhaps an "IRB-like" internal model could be established to ensure that the objectives and metrics are standardized across projects, and are in line with the WB's mission? But then again, folks I know working with the WB find the bureaucracy already cumbersome.

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For explanation of IRB follow this link. To see WB report see here.