© Gillettte Hall/World Bank

The Bank's store of development knowledge has always been an important element of its assistance to client countries. Knowledge activities range from carrying out country research, to developing analytic and conceptual frameworks for country assistance, to capacity building that enables client countries to build the skills necessary for development.

RESEARCH

The World Development Report 2006: Equity and Development (to be published in September 2005) examines the relationship between equity and the development process. The report maintains that increasing equality of opportunity and preventing extreme deprivation are tools for increasing prosperity, and that, in the long run, equity and efficiency are complementary. (See www.worldbank.org/wdr2006 and http://econ.worldbank.org/.)

Economic Growth in the 1990s: Learning from a Decade of Reforms , published during fiscal 2005, is a flagship study on development lessons learned from the 1990s. The study reviews the impact on growth of the main policy and institutional reforms introduced in the 1990s; it presents a broad perspective on the events, country experiences, academic research, and controversies of the decade; and it reflects on how the lessons from the 1990s have altered thinking about economic growth.

ANALYTIC AND ADVISORY SERVICES

The Bank augments its lending activities by creating, sharing, and applying knowledge. Most of its analytic and advisory services consist of economic and sector work and nonlending technical assistance.

The Bank delivered 694 economic and sector work products and 351 technical assistance products in fiscal 2005. Financial and private sector development and public sector governance were the leading themes for both economic and sector work and technical assistance. Analytic activities are being better integrated into overall country assistance programs, with increasing emphasis on country ownership, participatory processes, capacity building, and partnerships.

In fiscal 2005 the Bank hosted its fifth annual Country Analytic Work workshop, attended by 40 representatives from more than 20 development agencies and governments. These workshops aim to avoid duplication of analytic work, reduce transaction costs for clients, and establish common standards for key sector-specific analytic products. More than 30 donor agencies participate in knowledge sharing through the Country Analytic Work Web site, http://www.countryanalyticwork.net/.

The Bank's Quality Assurance Group conducted assessments of the Bank's country analytic and advisory services for 17 countries in fiscal 2005. Two of these were pilot country program assessments that looked at the lending and portfolio performance over the entire Country Assistance Strategy cycle. These assessments provided greater insight into synergies among tasks that could not be captured by task-by-task assessments alone. Building on earlier assessments for nine countries conducted in fiscal 2002 and 2003, this year's assessments focused on new directions such as the Bank's results initiative, programmatic lending, multisector teams, and capacity building. The Bank has conducted 36 assessments of its country analytic and advisory services to date.

SECTOR STRATEGIES

The Bank produced two important sector strategy papers in fiscal 2005. “Empowering People by Transforming Institutions: Social Development in World Bank Operations” is the Bank's action plan for social development (see “Social Development” in “Addressing Worldwide Poverty”). “Achieving the MDGs, Broadening Our Perspective, Maximizing Our Effectiveness” suggests how a client country can attain the Education for All goals and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for education, thus strengthening its education sector as the basis for a dynamic knowledge economy. The Bank also produced the first Sector Strategy Implementation Update, an integrated assessment of all Bank sector and thematic strategies.

CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

The World Bank Institute (WBI) provides client countries with a capacity development program comprising technical assistance, thematic learning programs, cabinet-level retreats, and other leadership development programs. It uses knowledge economy, governance, and other diagnostic tools for assessing critical country capacities in its economic and sector work. Since the Institute's inception in 1955 more than 500,000 people have participated in WBI activities.

In fiscal 2005 nearly 110,000 clients participated in more than 900 WBI activities, many through distance and e-learning. (See “The World in One Room,” in “Addressing Worldwide Poverty”.) Since 2002 WBI has been transforming itself from a training institute into a more broadly based provider of services, focusing its attention on a group of 36 countries representing all regions. During the year, WBI contributed substantively to 11 Country Assistance Strategies.

WBI's global Knowledge for Development Program works closely with Bank country teams to assess the preparedness of a country or region to compete in the global knowledge economy based on its Knowledge Assessment Methodology diagnostic tool. (See www.worldbank.org/kam.) The program's most recent book, India and the Knowledge Economy: Leveraging Strengths and Opportunities, makes specific recommendations for economic and institutional reforms.

A WBI “knowledge hub” in Marseilles, France, serves as the focal point for program development in the Middle East and North Africa. WBI staff are also placed in country offices. In response to demand from the Bank's South Asia region, WBI is creating a regional unit in New Delhi. (See www.worldbank.org/wbi.) WBI's other global program, focused on governance and anticorruption, is described in “Addressing Worldwide Poverty” .