The sub-series contains the working files for three major studies which the staff of the Corporate Evaluation and Methods Department (OEDCM) either participated in or directed. The first study, authorized by the Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE) in January 1999, was an OED review of the IDA program during the IDA-10-11 period (fiscal years 1994 - 1999) and during the first year of the IDA-12 replenishment (2000). The review, which examined IDA compliance with recommendations made by the IDA Deputies in the replenishment reports for IDA 10-12, concentrated on IDA's development contributions in six program areas (poverty reduction, social sector development, gender, environmental sustainability, private sector development, and governance) and four process reform areas (enhanced Country Assistance Strategy [CAS] design and implementation, performance-based allocations, participation, and aid coordination). The files for this study cover the period 1998 to 2003 and include intra-Bank correspondence that analyze Country Assistance Strategies and contain comments on the proposed CAS redesign and draft background reports on the six program and four process areas.

The second special study was an assessment of the implementation of the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF), an approach to development cooperation introduced by World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn in early 1999. The evaluation study was requested by CODE late in 1999. In the fall of 2000, the Bank hosted a global multi-partner conference to discuss how the evaluation should be conducted. As a result of that meeting, a Steering Committee was established in January 2001 to guide the study process with support from a Management Group, which was co-chaired by the Director-General of OED. The Steering Committee reflected the multi-partner nature of CDF and was composed of thirty members representing CDF pilot countries, donor agencies, development agencies, a developing country business firm, and an international non-governmental organization (NGO). The evaluation process itself focused on six case study countries: five for CDF pilot countries (Bolivia, Ghana, Romania, Uganda, and Vietnam) and one from a non-CDF country (Burkina Faso). The records documenting the CDF study cover the period from 2000 to 2004 and include, in addition to the usual special studies documents: planning documents for and minutes from the meetings of the Steering Committee and the Management Group and from a planning workshop held in October 2000; progress reports regarding the evaluation process; records from two workshops held in September and November 2002 to draft the CDF synthesis report; various drafts of the approach paper and an outline for the synthesis report; and drafts of chapters from the synthesis report itself.

The third study was an OED evaluative review of aid coordination policies, procedures, and practices. As part of this study, questionnaires were sent to three groups: Bank staff and managers; recipient government officials responsible for aid coordination; and representatives of local donor organizations. In addition to the OED questionnaires, OED and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) jointly requested the views on aid coordination from the directors of bilateral development agencies and officials of multi-lateral development banks (MDBs). The records in this sub-series are dated 1999 and relate only to the questionnaires received from the MDBs, the bilateral development agencies, and the local donor organizations. Included are the completed questionnaires and correspondence with World Bank country directors who selected the local donor organizations and with the directors of the MDBs and bilateral development agencies. Filed with the responses from MDBs and bilateral development agencies is a copy of the January 1999 report, Aid Coordination and the Role of the World Bank: An OED Review (Phase I) which summarized the first phase of the aid coordination study.

The series consists of correspondence files containing communications between the DGO and representatives of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The correspondence relates to aid evaluation and the promotion of evaluation functions in client countries. This exchange culminated on December 1, 1980, in DGO Mervyn Weiner's nomination of Shiv Kapur, OEDDR, as the Bank's correspondent for DAC's work in aid effectiveness. Following Kapur's selection as DGO, Yukinori Watanabe, OEDDR,was nominated on October 15, 1984, as the Bank's representative to DAC's Expert Group on Evaluation.

Correspondence and other documents for the period 1981 - 1995 relate to the establishment of DAC's Expert Group on Aid Coordination (later Evaluation) which held its first meeting in Paris on March 8 and 9, 1983, and include meeting schedules and agenda, meeting summaries, reports, seminar papers and other correspondence of the Directors-General who served as the Bank's representatives at high level meetings of the DAC Expert Group on Aid Evaluation during this period. Topics include: primary health care; technical cooperation; non-governmental organizations (NGOs); the economic environment; gender issues; public support for aid; and aid effectiveness. Correspondence regarding DGO Robert Picciotto's participation in the Third Annual Conference on Environmentally Sustainable Development held in October 1995 is also included.

Subject files covering the period 1984 - 1989 consist primarily of issue papers and proposals prepared for discussions at DAC meetings and seminars as well as correspondence dealing with issues of coordination, evaluation and the environment. Subjects covered in the records relate to institution building, health, the environmental impact of development projects and the Economic Development Institute (EDI) evaluation function. Documents prepared for a November 1988 meeting with NGOs are also in the files.

The series consists of correspondence primarily between DGO Yves Rovani and IFC Chief Evaluation Officer Walter I. Cohn, and relates to the DGO's responsibility for oversight of IFC's operations evaluation activities. An Operations Evalution Unit (OEU) was established within the Development Department of IFC in 1984. Included are drafts of IFC operations evaluation work programs for fiscal years 1986-1993 forwarded by Cohn to Rovani and to his successor Robert Picciotto for review and comment. Accompanying many of the work programs are proposals for special studies. Draft approach papers for those studies, also forwarded to DGO for review, include those prepared for the following studies: IFC's experience in the tourism sector (1989); performance of IFC's oil and gas exploration program (1991); successful IFC investments in Sub-Saharan Africa (1991); lending for industrial technology development (1992); IFC's market assessments (1992); and IFC's experience in the privatization of State-owned enterprises (1992). Comments prepared by the Country Policy, Industry and Finance Division (OEDD2) on some of the approach papers are included.

Also among the correspondence are comments from the DGOs to Cohn on OEU work programs and use of resources along with notes from the first meeting (July 16, 1986) at which the role of DGO in operations evaluation in IFC was discussed. Also included are: minutes of special meetings of the Portfolio Committee at which IFC evaluation studies were discussed; a list of IFC project completion reports for fiscal year 1982 to fiscal year 1986; a copy of a May 20, 1987, memo distributed to all IFC high level staff on new procedures for project completion reports; and Cohn's February 21, 1991, memorandum copied to Rovani in which he responds extensively to issues raised at an earlier Joint Audit Committee (JAC) Sub-Committee on Operations Evaluation meeting regarding IFC's evaluation capacity, IFC evaluation work, and the relationship between IFC and DGO and OED. In this memo he also responds to issues surrounding a report prepared by OEU on IFC's experience in the agricultural production sector.

A small amount of miscellaneous correspondence arranged by subject (1983 - 1995) includes: formal and informal memoranda and other correspondence between the Director, OEU, Walter I. Cohn and DGO's Mervyn Weiner, Yves Rovani, and Robert Picciotto; approach papers for studies forwarded for approval to DGO before being sent to the JAC, copies of IFC policy papers, and draft IFC evaluation reports, workprograms, and budgets. Also included are an Annual Portfolio Evaluation Report for FY 1983 and an updated mandate statement for evaluation in the Bank and IFC that reflects findings of the March 1995 report of the review of evaluation in IFC.

Subject files (1980 - 1995) found with the correspondence include the report of IFC's first evaluation of a segment of its portfolio of investments, IFC Hotel Portfolio Review, forwarded by DGO Mervyn Wiener to the Joint Audit Committee (JAC) for review on May 11, 1981. Also included are reports of IFC evaluations in the agricultural, mining, and petrochemical sectors completed between 1983 and 1994 and in the cement and textile industries sectors between 1983 and 1989. There are also files containing correspondence and reports relating to: evaluations of successful investments in Sub-Saharan Africa (1994); support for small and medium scale enterprises (1995); investment assessments performed by OED (1992 - 1994); IFC's Five Year Program for fiscal years 1985 - 1989; and the review of evaluation in IFC (1994 - 1995).

A small amount of miscellaneous IFC and OEU reports (1979 - 1989), some of which are annotated, forwarded to DGOs Mervyn Weiner, Yves Rovani, and Robert Picciotto are in the series. A number of these reports were distributed to the Board of Directors including three confidential Project Completion Reports (PCRs) on three IFC investments in Guatemala (1979), Brazil (1979), and Indonesia (1979). These three reports were distributed in January 1980 to the Board based on a decision made at an October 30, 1979, Board meeting. Each director was to receive a copy to indicate the type of PCR IFC had been preparing and to illustrate why caution was necessary when disseminating information contained in the reports. Other IFC reports included are: Annual Portfolio Evaluation Reports for fiscal years 1984 and 1986 - 1988; a report entitled Deterioration in IFC's Portfolio: An Analysis (March 1985); and a report prepared by a consultant entitled IFC in Sub-Saharan Africa, Proposals for a New Approach (February 1987).

The series consists of letters, memoranda, and messages between the DGO and the heads of evaluation units of bilateral and international organizations. The series documents primarily the formulation, implementation, and impact of evaluations within these bilateral and international organizations. Some of the correspondence is with the Special Advisor and Assistant to the DGO and the Director, Operations Evaluation Department (OEDDR). The series also contains copies of studies, publications, and reports of audits and evaluations sent to DGO. A copy of a February 15, 1980 memorandum from President Robert S. McNamara to DGO Mervyn L. Weiner addresses Bank support for upgrading national audit institutions. With this memorandum is correspondence describing implementation actions taken by the Bank and cooperation with the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSA).

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.