The World Bank conducted a retrospective review of its development policy operations (DPOs) approved between March 2006 and June 2008.

The World Bank carries out reviews of its development policy operations on a regular basis with the last retrospective having been concluded in July 2006. The main objective of the 2009 Development Policy Lending Retrospective was to assess the effectiveness of World Bank development policy operations in supporting the design and implementation of a borrower’s medium-term development policy agenda. The retrospective also presented the main features of World Bank DPOs; discussed emerging issues arising from the experience with policy-based lending; and reported on recent trends in the design and processing of World Bank DPOs and on progress with the implementation of the good practice principles on conditionality.