How Should the Bank Adjust Its M&E to Manage for Results?

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Appendix B: Implications of the World Bank's Results Agenda for Monitoring and Evaluation

A focus on results places greater emphasis on the outcome of Bank operations, leading to changes in the way the borrower and Bank collect and use monitoring information.

The focus on the outcome of its operations requires the Bank to:

Be specific on what it expects from its interventions (not just "reduce poverty").
Have a clear strategy linking outcomes, outputs, and inputs.
Strengthen links to country development goals and identify synergies across interventions.

The focus on results changes the way the Bank approaches M&E (Figs. 1 & 2). Bank staff would need to reconsider how they collect and use monitoring information, not only for recording progress but also for management and learning. Evaluative approaches can also be used not just at the end, but during different phases of an operation in order to improve its effectiveness (Table 1).

Figure 1: Moving from a Traditional to Results-Focused Approach to Monitoring

Traditional Approach		Greater Results Focus
Monitor progress on inputs and outputs		Monitor progress on inputs, outputs, and outcomes
Data collection (inputs, outputs) carried out primarily "in house"		Come up with alternative ways to collect outcome information and/or work with other agencies
Focus on activities, mainly investment projects		Focus on combinations of activities sharing common outcomes at the sector, country, and/or global levels
Monitoring systems specific to individual activities		Monitoring systems common across activities and development partners Institutional approach to M&E, focusing on the use of performance information and working with clients/partners who may need similar information for decision making
Limited use of monitoring information beyond routine reporting		Monitoring as a learning opportunity

Figure 2: Moving from a Traditional to a Results-Focused Approach to Evaluation

Traditional Approach		Greater Results Focus
Monitoring seen as an internal management activity while evaluation carried out by external, independent entity		Greater use of self-evaluation by management
Evaluations usually carried out (ex-post) at the completition of the activity to determine "what worked, what didn't work, and why"		More evaluations (self and independent) carried out before start of project/program to examine "what would work and what would not work" and during implementation to determine "what is working, what is not working, and why"
Evaluations focused primarily on single activities (such as a project) and carried out separately or in parallel with other government and/or development partner activities		While Bank would continue to conduct evaluations of its own operations, evaluations increasingly carried out jointly with government and other development partners

Table 1: Some Uses of Evaluation to Better Manage for Results

Question	Issue	Evaluation Approach
Do we have the right strategy and project/ program design?	The results chain in the projects are weak. Task teams struggle to link the project with higher-level country development goals and CAS outcomes, especially to determine key intermediate outcomes that could be used for M&E.	Program Logic Chain Assessments determine the strength and logic of the casual model behind a policy, program, or project. The model addresses the deployment and sequencing of the activities, resources, or policy initiatives that can cause the desired change in an existing condition. The assessment would address the plausibility of achieving the desired change, based on the record of similar efforts and on the research literature. The intention is to avoid failure from a weak design that would have little or no chance of success in achieving the intended outcomes.
Do we fully understand what is happening at the beneficiary level?	Project/program managers may not have a full understanding of the changes that the project/program may be causing. This could be caused by a lack of appropriate beneficiary data or difficulties in comprehending quantitative monitoring data.	Rapid appraisal methods provide quick assessment data from beneficiaries and stakeholders on the progress of a given project, program, or policy. It is a multi-method evaluation approach that would involve (a) key informant interviews, (b) focus group interviews, (c) community interviews, (d) structured direct observation, and (e) surveys. Rapid appraisals are quicker and less costly than formal surveys, but are also less valid and reliable.
To what extent were the outcomes a result of the project/program?	Many factors affect the target beneficiary groups, so it is difficult to distinguish the impact of the project from that of other factors and to understand how the project/program affected the beneficiaries (positively/negatively, intended/unintended).	A rigorous impact evaluation identifies a counterfactual to analyze the situation, with and without the project/program. It establishes the impact of the project/program and address questions of causality and attribution.

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How Should the Bank Adjust Its M&E to Manage for Results?