Last Updated: Mar 5, 11:47 am
Category: OpenCities Projects
Open Cities director Marc Stephens has been advising the evaluations department of the World Bank in Washington DC as part of a panel of academics and practitioners overseeing a major evaluation of the Bank’s programmes in Middle Income countries.
Open Cities joined a day long discussion of the Bank’s initial findings in November last year. The report is nearing completion and will be submitted to the Board of the World Bank during the summer.
Middle-income countries (MICs) are an important group on the global stage and include mega-economies such as China and Egypt as well as a number of much smaller economies. These 86 countries account for just under half of the world’s population, and are home to nearly 40 percent of the world’s poor living on less than $2 a day.
They are a very diverse group whose development challenges are substantial and varied. The IEG evaluation will differ from, and add to, existing studies because it will focus on the development effectiveness of the Bank’s engagement in MICs.
By drawing lessons from recent development experience in client countries, the evaluation’s findings will help to inform the composition and scale of future assistance programs for MICs with a variety of needs and preferences.
The review’s findings on knowledge sharing and global engagement issues will also shed light on how partnership activity with MICs can be strengthened, so that a more effective globally-coordinated response can be made to deal with common challenges affecting the international community at large.
For more information see http://www.worldbank.org/ieg/mic
