Making Results Matter

Two years ago, at the Monterrey conference on development, the heads of the World Bank and other international organizations called for a greater focus on results as a way of improving the effectiveness of their efforts.

In the World Bank, the Results Secretariat is charged with helping to turn this call for action into a culture change at the Bank-putting managing for results at the center of the Bank's work.

The World Bank is working on an agenda on managing for results that focuses on three areas: helping countries strengthen their ability to manage for results, improving the Bank's own focus on results, and working with other development agencies to encourage a common approach.

According to Ellen Goldstein, who heads the Results Secretariat, "When we talk about results, we are talking about improvements in development outcomes-real changes in peoples' lives. We need to focus more on how our support contributes to country outcomes. As we design projects or programs with our clients, the first question should be 'what are the expected results?'"

As part of the results focus, Country Assistance Strategies (the documents in which the Bank plans its program of work in countries) are becoming more results-focused. The idea is that the entire strategy should contribute to country results. For every activity supported by the strategy, country and Bank staff should be thinking about results as soon as they begin planning-and they should work toward those results during implementation. At the end of the project or program, they should evaluate to assess whether expected results were achieved and draw lessons for the future

Goldstein stresses how important it is for projects to have a clear vision of what their end point will be and how they plan to measure their results.

The Results Secretariat is working to help Bank staff increase the focus on results in their work. In early 2004, a one-day event-"Results: Everybody's Business"-kicked off a new learning series aimed at making managing for results an integral part of the Bank's daily work. .

But if the results agenda is to be truly effective, it needs to be part of a larger global partnership. All international aid organizations and developing countries will need to collaborate on managing for results.

One of the main challenges countries face as they try to manage for development results is the burden created by the many processes and requirements of donors. For example, each institution may require countries to report different data in different formats at different times. The countries need to be able to focus on development, not on meeting extra requirements. Therefore it is important for the development institutions to harmonize their requirements and help countries build national systems that they can use in managing for results.

Another challenge is how to measure progress. Many countries lack baseline data, and systems for collecting data, that they can use to track progress toward goals.. This underscores the need for the international community to support countries in developing statistical and monitoring and evaluation systems, institutions, and capacity to manage for results

This month in Marrakech, Morocco, nearly 200 participants from aid organizations and developing countries will meet in a roundtable to assess progress, focus on the challenges countries face in managing for results, and attempt to increase the political commitment of the international community to support the global results agenda.

The Roundtable's sponsors-the multilateral development banks in collaboration with the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development-are expected to endorse core principles and a global action plan on managing for development results.