Advisory Services

NEW!

Better Outcomes Through Health Reforms in the Russian Federation: The Challenge in 2008 and Beyond This Policy Note was prepared in December 2007–January 2008 by Patricio V. Marquez, Lead Health Specialist, Europe and Central Asia, The World Bank, with contributions from Rifat Atun, Imperial College, London; William Tompson, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Paris; and Sevil Kamalovna Salakhutdinova, Health Officer, World Bank Moscow Office. ...More

Non-lending Activities: Analytical and Advisory Activities

Analytical and Advisory Activities (AAA) represent an essential and increasingly important service that the World Bank provides to client countries, providing a foundation for defining strategic priorities and informing policy dialogue and decisions on projects and programs, as well as forming stand-alone counseling activities for the benefit of our clients. These activities encompass:

• Economic and Sector Work (ESW) refers to activities supporting the reform program of client countries' and comprises formal and informal studies of critical issues, either at the country level or for specific sectors. Key ESW categories include: country diagnostic reports, country advisory reports, regional reports, and other products such as policy and technical notes and other informal country dialogue products.
• Non-lending Technical Assistance (TA) is the transfer of skills and knowledge for developmental purposes and a key instrument for improving policies and project design, enhancing skills, and strengthening implementation capacity. Services can range from the transfer of best practices on a very specific and narrow topic to ongoing advisory relationship on a complex set of issues where the Bank will contribute tailored solutions to client situations.
• Knowledge Management (KM) pertains to systematic capturing and organizing of the wealth of knowledge and experience gained from our staff, clients, and development partners; making this knowledge readily accessible; and creating linkages between groups and communities working on similar topics.
• Training and Learning programs (typically managed by the World Bank Institute)    include a variety of delivery mechanisms (e.g., in-person training, electronic media and distance learning) for training and learning content with the objective of building capacity and transferring pertinent skills and knowledge.
• Research on various policy issues to help underpin and ensure effective development assistance to our clients.
• Recurring sectoral reviews, such as Public Expenditure Reviews which analyze public sector issues in general and the public budget in particular with the primary function of assisting the client country in reforming public expenditures, including health expenditures.