The Annual Report on Operations Evaluation (AROE) fulfills the Independent Evaluation Group's (IEG's) mandate to assess progress, status, and prospects for monitoring and evaluating the development effectiveness of World Bank activities. The AROE has two parts — it assesses monitoring and evaluation (M&E) within the Bank and reviews IEG's own effectiveness.

The 2006 AROE places special emphasis on examining is the extent to which the Bank's M&E systems provide staff with the information they need to better manage for results. In this regard, it focuses on:

• M&E information needed to deliver a better product to clients within the context of the Bank's and country's results focus.
  
  
• Adequacy of the current results frameworks in providing Bank staff the information they need to manage for results.
  
  
• Adequacy of Bank self- and IEG evaluations in providing Bank staff the information they need to manage for results.
  
  

• A desk review of Bank documents on the results agenda, Bank-wide assessments, operational policies and guidelines on M&E, selected project reports and IEG evaluations.
  
  
• A review of 25 Country Assistance Strategy results frameworks prepared during fiscal 2005-06 to assess their usefulness as a tool to manage the Bank's country program.
  
  
• Focus groups and structured interviews with 66 Bank country directors, CODE members, country coordinators, sector managers, and task team leaders to obtain feedback on their experience with results frameworks and their usefulness in management for results.
  
  
• An internal electronic survey of 4,285 Bank staff, executive directors and their advisors, and an external electronic survey of 2,759 clients to assess IEG evaluations in relation to: (a) readership and awareness; (b) quality; (c) influence of the report on Bank staff understanding; and (d) use of the reports. The survey included questions from prior years to provide comparability over time, but also included new questions on the use and influence of IEG evaluations in Bank operations.