The sub-series contains the working files for special studies generated by the Country Evaluations and Regional Relations Division (OEDCR) as well as some records of its predecessor, the Country Policy, Industry and Finance Division (OEDD2).

• Much of this sub-series (six linear feet) consists of the 1999 - 2004 working files for the ODECR study The Gender Dimension of Bank Assistance I and II. These files include materials from the Bank gender issues workshops held in Nairobi, Delhi, Quito, and Warsaw in2000 and 2001.

• Other studies primarily concern finance, adjustment lending, civil service reform, and poverty reduction. Studies include: Civil Service Reform: A Review of World Bank Assistance (April, 1999); The World Bank and Microenterprise Finance from Concept to Practice (November, 1999); The Effectiveness of the World Bank's Poverty Reduction Strategy: An Evaluation (May, 2000); Adjustment Lending in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Update (1997); World Bank Assistance to Privatization in Developing Countries (August, 1994); Higher Impact Adjustment Lending (HIAL): Initial Evaluation (June 1999); The Impact of Public Expenditure Reviews: An Evaluation (1998); World Bank Assistance to CFA ('Communeaute Financiere Africaine'[African Financial Community]) Countries, An Evaluation of Selected Social, Economic and Regional Aspects of the Bank's Performance (2000); Financial Sector Reform: A Review of World Bank Assistance (1998); Fiscal Management in Adjustment Lending (1996); a joint 1998 OED/OEG study, An Evaluation of the Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS); Implementation of Operational Directive 4.20 on Indigenous Peoples: An Independent Desk Review (2003); Legal and Judicial Reform in Europe and Central Asia (2002); Lessons for LICUS (Low Income Countries Under Stress) from OED Country Assistance Evaluations (2001 - 2004); and The Special Program of Assistance for Africa (SPA), an independent evaluation of the SPA as a mechanism to promote adjustment and development in Sub-Saharan Africa (1996 - 1998).

• The sub-series also contains incomplete background materials regarding two other studies: the Quality Assurance Group's 1996 assessment of the Argentine Convertibility Plan and OED's 1997 survey of the major participating financial institutions (PFIs) involved with the Industrial Guarantee Loan Fund (IGLF). The Argentine file primarily contains background information regarding the Convertibility Plan itself. The PFI survey file consists only of correspondence with officials at the Development Bank of thePhilippines concerning their advice regarding the design of the survey records. The survey was part of the OED evaluation of the IGLF program.

• In addition to study files, this sub-series contains files with copies of draft Bank issuances for which the OEDD2 and OEDCR staffs provided comments. Included are comments files for the Portfolio Improvement Program, proposed procedures for the Executive Directors, and Operations Manual draft chapters. The sub-series also contains a copy of the proceedings of a 1998 OED workshop on Indonesia that provided background information for a Country Assistance Review (CAR) of Indonesia.