Environmental Sustainability: An Evaluation of World Bank Group Support

World Bank (cont)

• Mainstreaming
• some improvement but still far to go (poverty, health-environment links, vulnerability)
• Partnerships
• needs strengthening within WBG and externally
• some good examples (GEF, Pov-Env. Ptnp. )
• Global public goods
• less emphasis during evaluation period, though now growing
• some good examples (Montreal protocol, carbon finance)

IFC

• Environmental and social effects of investment projects
• 67% success rate in meeting IFC requirements and performance standards
• weak performance in Africa and in certain sectors
• limited attention to broader context
• Environmental work quality
• appraisal generally good, supervision of financial intermediaries weak
• 3. “Doing good” initiatives
• M&E system generated insufficient data or still too early to assess
• - Environment & Social Sustainability advisory services
• - Equator Principles

• Sustainability in IFC corporate strategies since 2001. Until recently focus has been on “do no harm”. Move to more “do good”.

MIGA

• MIGA’s focus has been primarily on “do no harm”
• Sustainability concept just incorporated in core business
• Environmental and social effects
• Category A projects: better performance and increased attention to social issues
• Category B projects: less attention, worse performance
• Environmental work quality
• Strengthened environmental and social issues in underwriting
• New policy and performance standards (2007): Go beyond safeguards to promote sustainability in guaranteed projects

Looking ahead

Many constraints need to be confronted

• Clients (public and private)
• Competing demands (e.g. growth,
• energy needs, governance, conflict)
• Insufficient client commitment
• Inadequate institutional capacity
• and resources
• World Bank Group
• Competing priorities
• Inadequate staff skills and knowledge networks
• Difficulties of coordination across sectors, across WBG, and externally
• Difficulties of taking long-term view and of assessing country-level impacts beyond individual projects