Print preview Close

Showing 1-21 of 21 results

Records of the Office of Operations Evaluation Subseries

Memoranda Files of Director Christopher R. Willoughby

This sub-series is a collection of memoranda and related records compiled by Christopher R. Willoughby who was among the first employees of the Operations Evaluation Unit and was appointed the first director of the Operations Evaluation Department in July 1973.

  • The first set of files consists of memoranda (dated November 1970 - November 1972; February - April 1973; and February - August 1975) sent to President Robert McNamara from Christopher R. Willoughby and also John Adler, who was director when the Operation Evaluation Unit was established in 1970. The memoranda concern the early workings of Operations Evaluation including: the decision to begin with an in-depth look at the Bank's work in one country, Colombia, and in one sector, electrical power; the development of the format for these first two reports; progress reports on the work of the unit and on the development of future work programs; and the relationship between evaluation and supervision. Some of the original memoranda to McNamara were returned to Operations Evaluation marked with a red stamp indicating President has seen. One long memorandum for the record summarizes the January 1971 visit with the Colombia Operations Evaluation team of Dr. Lauchlin Currie who headed the Bank's General Survey Mission to Colombia in 1949. Included in this first set of files are handwritten notes and memoranda for the record summarizing meetings Willoughby and others had with McNamara.

The second set of files consists of memoranda (dated April 1970 - February 1976) sent and received by Willoughby and his copies of key memoranda documenting the development of the operations evaluation function and the changing position of the Operations Evaluation staff within the Bank. Included are Willoughby's handwritten drafts and final copies of the key issuances affecting Operations Evaluation and his notes from key meetings. One folder contains Willoughby's drafts of a September 29, 1975 memoranda from Mohamed Shoaib, Vice President, Operations Evaluation Division, outlining the history of the evaluation function from 1971 to 1975.

Subject Files of the Directors, Operations Evaluation

This sub-series contains reports, correspondence, and studies compiled by the Directors of OED (OEDDR). Most of the files contain comments from OED staff members and/or the director on draft documents from other Bank employees. Filed under General Comments on Review of Field Staff Benefits are OED comments on various Bank documents, 1995-1998. Key topics covered by other files include: OED staff views on the dissemination and use of OED findings (filed under Dissemination); ratings of the Narmada and Kedung Ombo Completion Reports (filed under Narmada); reports of the Joint Audit Committee Informal Subcommittee on OED Reports; a select review of OED by the Internal Auditing Department planned for 1996; plans for an OED study of NGOs; OED collaboration with the Economic Development Institute (now WBI); joint OED/Operations Policy Department reports on the quality of economic analysis in staff appraisal reports for projects approved 1993 - 1997 (filed under Economic Analysis, Econ III and Econ IV and Economic Analysis: Correspondence); a 1996 proposal for simplified project documentation for investment operations (filed under Simplified Documentation); and OED staff retreats for December 15-17, 1987, November 29-December 1, 1989, June 26-28, 1991, and September 8-10, 1993. These retreat files contain agenda and schedules, copies of documents discussed at the retreats, copies of presentations, and post-retreat evaluation forms.

Filed under Portfolio Management are: memoranda regarding funding arrangements for OED studies and on borrowers' interest in ex-post evaluations; OED staff comments on the draft Wapenhans Report and on the draft chapter concerning OED; and copies of minutes of the Task Force Steering Committee on which Eberhard Kopp served. Filed under Streamlining Bank Procedures are memoranda and correspondence Kopp compiled in 1985 and 1986 before he became OEDDR Director and while he was a member of Working Group #3 of the Task Force on Streamlining Bank Procedures.

Correspondence with Industrialized Nations Regarding Evaluations

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.

Shared Subject Files of the Directors-General, Operations Evaluation (DGO), and the Directors, Operations Evaluation Department (OEDDR)

The files in this sub-series contain documents maintained by both DGO and OEDDR, and much of the content of this series is duplicated elsewhere, especially in the files for OED studies and process reviews.

Most of the files relate to the work of OED, but some, which concern non-OED matters, contain records from other Bank units that were forwarded to the DGO/OEDDR for comment or as a result of a general distribution to high-level Bank staff. Most of the files fall under one of two general headings: 1) Management and Oversight and 2) External Affairs. The Management and Oversight files concern issues involving the President, Executive Directors, members of the Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE), and Bank Vice Presidents. Included are: correspondence with CODE members; copies of reports from OED that went to CODE and to the Executive Directors; intra-OED correspondence regarding preparation for meetings with CODE members and the Executive Directors; OED's response to a draft of the 1996 audit of OED by the Internal Auditing Department; agenda and minutes of OVP (Operations, Vice Presidents) meetings and retreats; intra-OED correspondence regarding the DGO's comments on records and topics to be discussed at OVP meetings; correspondence with Managing Directors and copies of records to be discussed with the Directors; files documenting OED preparations for briefings and/or briefing papers provided to President Wolfensohn on his arrival at the Bank and prior to some of his overseas trips; OED's contributions to the observance of the 50th anniversary of the Bank and comments from the DGO and OED staff on draft chapters of the Brookings Institution's history of the Bank; and agenda and background documents relating to the 1995 OED management team retreats. Under Clusters are files coordinating work on a study (or a broad area of interest) assigned to a specific OED Division (i.e., OEDCM, OEDCR, and OEDST).

Under External Affairs are files concerning the DGO's and OEDDR's interaction with, or reports regarding: IFC and MIGA staff; international aid organizations; evaluation organizations; the US General Accounting Office; the World Commission on Large Dams; NGOs; the Multilateral Development Banks; the members of the DAC Expert Group on Aid Evaluation (filed under OECD-Development Assistance Committee); and other Bank units and departments. Filed under Liaison with other OED Units - OEDDR is a chronological file of correspondence, 1988 - 1996, between the DGO and OEDDR or between OEDDR and other Bank units.

Subject Files of the OED Directors (OEDDR) Relating to Policies and Procedures Affecting OED Programs

The files in this sub-series, compiled by the Directors of OED (OEDDR), outline the policies and procedures affecting OED programs and work products. Included in the first segment (1970 - 1994) are files concerning: the Project Completion Report / Project Performance Audit Report (PCR/PPAR) evaluation system and the pass-through procedures for PCRs that began in 1982; the dissemination and use of OED findings; the various revisions of the Procedural Guidelines for Operations Evaluation Staff and of the chapters in the Operational Manual regarding Project Completion Report / Implementation Completion Report (PCR/ICR) guidelines and project supervision in the Bank; the development and use of the Project Information Form (PIF); the development of OED's evaluation seminars; and the role of environmental issues in Bank evaluations. One file (Lessons Learnt from Project Performance Audit Reports - Agriculture) contains the OEDDR's copies of memoranda dated December 1980 to July 1986 from the Assistant Director ofthe Agriculture and Rural Development Department (AGR) to AGR division chiefs outlining the lessons learned from reviews of Agricultural PCRs and PPARs. Another file (Operations Evaluation Department - General) contains copies of key documents in the history of OED from 1970 to 1988.

Much of the second segment (1985 - 2001) contains documentation regarding the Bankwide ICR Process Review Working Group which was co-chaired by OED Director Elizabeth McCallister and was established in December 1997 to make the ICR process more efficient, effective, and timely. The records for the working group include agenda and minutes of meetings, various drafts of the group's final report, comments on the drafts, and intra-OED correspondence on the workings of the group. Other files contain: correspondence concerning changes in the PIF and instructions for completing the form; intra-OED correspondence regarding the discrepancy between OED and Regional project ratings (PPAR-Project Ratings); internal OED e-mail discussions of the ICR review process and the development of the ICR Evaluation Summary form; intra-OED correspondence regarding specific ICR reviews; draft ICR guidelines and comments on them; revisions to the OED handbook, Procedural Guidelines for Operations Evaluation Staff (Guidelines - Amendments); the drafts of a style manual standardizing the format for OED reports; and a proposal for dealing with the workflow problems associated with ICR bunching, i.e. the receipt of the majority of ICRs during the months of May, June, and July. Filed under PPAR - General is a copy of July 1995 Performance Audit Guidance, which was prepared by the OED Audit Guidance Working Group in 1995.

Subject Files of Directors-General, Operations Evaluation, Relating to Policies and Procedures Affecting OED Programs

This sub-series contains correspondence and reports of the DGO that established policies and procedures regarding OED's programs and work products. Most of the records were compiled by Robert Picciotto, but a few early files contain correspondence of Directors-General Shiv Kapur and Yves Rovani. Much of the DGO's correspondence is with the Director of OED and OED staff or with Pablo Guerrero, special advisor and assistant to the DGO. The files contain information regarding: OED procedures and criteria for reviewing Project Completion Reports (PCRs) and Implementation Completion Reports (ICRs) (under ratings and PCR review process); evaluation capacity training for OED staff, other Bank staff, and external Bank partners (under training); procedures and standards for Country Assistance Reviews (CARs) and Country Assistance Notes (CANs) (under country assistance work); OED special studies and OED impact evaluations; the format and content of new OED issuances and tools designed to disseminate lessons learned from OED's evaluation work (under Lessons & Practices, Evaluation in the World Bank [WB] booklet, Policy Ledger, and Evaluation Text Base); revisions of the Project Information Form (PIF) and instructions for using it; the disclosure and publication of evaluation results; and the PCR (and later the ICR) backlog in each region. Filed under Initial Executive Project Summaries (IEPS) are OED procedures for reviewing IEPSs for proposed operations and copies of OED comments on specific IEPSs and responses from the Regions regarding the OED comments.

Much of this sub-series consists of the DGO's copies of records from a number of working groups and task forces that affected the work of OED. Particularly extensive are the records regarding the Task Force on Evaluation Capacity Development (ECD) in Developing Countries which was established in 1992 to design mechanisms to assist member countries in enhancing their post evaluation capacities. Pablo Guerrero was the DGO/OED member on the Task Force. A file labeled PCR Task Force contains copies of records relating to three groups established to review the PCR process: 1) the Committee on the Revision of the PCR, Audit, and Pass-Through Procedures which met in 1986; 2) the Working Group on Project Completion Reports which was established in January 1988 and sent its report to the Joint Audit Committee (JAC) in January 1989; and 3) the joint OED/Operations Review Panel on Project Completion Reporting which was established in November 1990 and sent its report to JAC in June 1991. Other groups whose work is documented in these files are the Bankwide ICR Process Review Working Group, which met in 1998 to make the ICR process more efficient, effective, and timely, and the Working Group on Evaluation Dissemination, which was established in fiscal year 1994 to review the Bank's experience in incorporating evaluation results into new operations. It issued its final report in June 1996.