Country Engagement

The World Bank Group’s Country Partnership Framework (CPF) frames our engagement in line with the Bank’s mission to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet. The model seeks to maximize the impact of WBG’s support to these goals, by contributing over time to high-level outcomes (HLOs) consistent with a country’s development goals. HLOs are typically achieved over a time horizon that extends beyond a single Country Engagement Cycle, are set at a higher level than CPF objectives and typically result from the combined effort of multiple partners.  The CPF guides the World Bank Group's (WBG) support to a member country. Work is underway to enhance our country-driven model in light with our new mission and vision.

View the World Bank Group Directive and Guidance on Country Engagement.

STEPS IN OUR COUNTRY ENGAGEMENT 

STEP 1: What are the biggest constraints to reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity on on a livable planet?  As part of the Evolution Process, we have streamlined the SCDs in line with the new vision and mission. The SCD draws on a synthesis of our new set of Core Analytics. These are the Country Climate and Development Report, the Country Economic Memorandum, the Public Finance Review, the Country Private Sector Diagnostic, and Poverty and Equity Assessment. Core Analytics are undertaken with substantive engagement in the country. SCDs can also draw on other analysis of existing country data and studies by the WBG and external partners, and aim at identifying the most critical constraints to, and opportunities for, reducing poverty and building shared prosperity on a livable planet.

STEP 2: What are the most important contributions the World Bank Group can make? When preparing a CPF, the WBG starts from the member country’s own vision of its country development goals, which may be laid out in a poverty-focused national development strategy. In consultation with key stakeholders in the country, including private sector clients and civil society, the WBG works with the government to review and learn from the previous country engagement cycle, draws on the findings of the SCD, and utilizes the WBG’s comparative advantage to agree on a few selected HLOs that the WBG engagement seeks to contribute to, and determine related CPF Objectives, against which the program is monitored during and evaluated at the end of the CPF cycle.

STEP 3: How are we doing? Performance and Learning Reviews (PLRs) are prepared mid-way through the CPF cycle. PLRs identify and capture lessons, and determine midcourse corrections in the CPF objectives and program of interventions. They also contribute to and help build the WBG’s knowledge base, into the SCD and CPF.

STEP 4: What did we learn? Completion and Learning Reviews (CLR) identify and capture end-of-cycle learning to contribute to the WBG’s knowledge base, including on how to integrate inclusion and sustainability dimensions into WBG programs. CLR findings are an important input to the preparation of a new CPF.