Subseries - Correspondence with Industrialized Nations Regarding Evaluations

Saudi Arabia - Country Evaluation Reports and Correspondence

Identity area

Reference code

WB IBRD/IDA OPE-02-01

Title

Correspondence with Industrialized Nations Regarding Evaluations

Date(s)

  • 1971 - 1996 (predominant 1987 - 1996) (Creation)

Level of description

Subseries

Extent and medium

4.08 linear feet of textual records

Context area

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

This sub-series contains correspondence and other records exchanged between OED staff and officials located in industrialized countries who were responsible for, or interested in, monitoring and evaluation processes. Included is correspondence with officials in the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, France, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Greece, Austria, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Most of the correspondence is with the Director of OED, the Director-General, Operations Evaluation (DGO), and the DGO's advisors, Robert van der Lugt and Pablo Guerrero, who were responsible for developing evaluation capacity in member countries. The correspondence concerns: requests for information regarding OED's evaluation policies and procedures or assistance in conducting an evaluation; exchanges of evaluation methodologies; international seminars on evaluation; visits of OED staff to other countries to conduct an evaluation or to attend an evaluation conference or seminar; and visits toOED of evaluation officials from abroad. Included are copies of other countries' studies, reports, and manuals regarding evaluations and evaluation methods.

The U.S. correspondence is with officials in the U. S. Agency for International Development (AID), the General Accounting Office (GAO), and the Department of Treasury; most are copies of records that are presumably located elsewhere in OED and Bank records. The US AID correspondence primarily concerns exchanges of policy papers, studies and reports onevaluation guidelines. The GAO correspondence relates to 1977, 1981, and 1991 congressionally required GAO reviews of the independent evaluation system of the Bank and a 1996 GAO review of the overall role of the World Bank in a post-Cold War environment.

The earliest GAO file contains documents assembled by OED Director Christopher R. Willoughby in 1973 and 1974 following release of the 1973 GAO report on U.S. participation in World Bank. Included in the file are a number of documents from Bank PresidentRobert McNamara, Vice President Mohamed Shoaib, the U.S. Executive Director Charles O. Sethness, and Willoughby, discussing the audit and evaluation functions in the Bank and proposed changes in the structure and function of Operations Evaluation.

The Department of Treasury file concerns the department's 1971-1973 interest in the evaluation function of the Bank and Treasury's support of the GAO recommendation for the establishment of an independent review body to evaluate the Bank's activities.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

Accruals are expected.

System of arrangement

Original file arrangement has been maintained. Files are arranged by country and thereunder chronologically.

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Records are subject to the Internal Evaluation Group's Access to Information Policy.

Conditions governing reproduction

Records are subject to the Copyright Policy of the World Bank Group.

Language of material

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Dutch

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

An inventory list is available here.

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

Related descriptions

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

Access points

Subject access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Internal World Bank Group Archives rules based on ISAD(G).

Disclosure status

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

27 September 2006, 25 June 2008, 24 April 2009, 17 September 2009

Language(s)

Script(s)

Sources

Accession area