The World Bank and Governance : The Bank’s Efforts to Help Developing Countries Build State Capacity

This paper examines historically the World Bank's twin features: lending to developing economies to achieve tangible results and advocating specific development policies. Section 1 provides some conceptual underpinnings for the view that an ef...

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Main Authors:	de Janvry, Alain, Dethier, Jean-Jacques
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	2013
Subjects:	ADVOCACY AID FLOWS CAPACITY BUILDING DEVELOPING ECONOMIES DEVELOPMENT POLICIES GOVERNANCE GOVERNMENT ROLE LENDING RESEARCH STAFF INCENTIVES WORLD BANK LENDING WORLD BANK ORGANIZATION
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/11/16985782/world-bank-governance-banks-efforts-help-developing-countries-build-state-capacity http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12112

id	okr-10986-12112
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-121122021-04-23T14:02:59Z The World Bank and Governance : The Bank’s Efforts to Help Developing Countries Build State Capacity de Janvry, Alain Dethier, Jean-Jacques ADVOCACY AID FLOWS CAPACITY BUILDING DEVELOPING ECONOMIES DEVELOPMENT POLICIES GOVERNANCE GOVERNMENT ROLE LENDING RESEARCH STAFF INCENTIVES WORLD BANK LENDING WORLD BANK ORGANIZATION This paper examines historically the World Bank's twin features: lending to developing economies to achieve tangible results and advocating specific development policies. Section 1 provides some conceptual underpinnings for the view that an effective state is essential for development. It asks whether development can be engineered, and state capacity increased, with large aid flows. Section 2 sketches the historical evolution of what characterizes the World Bank: lending to developing economies and advocacy of development policy. It concludes that, while the Bank discourse explicitly recognizes that developing countries need to improve their governance and build the capacity of the public sector to improve living standards, the Bank's performance in assisting governments in building state capacity and achieving better governance outcomes has been disappointing. Section 3 proposes an interpretation of why this has been the case. The interpretation is structural, and related to the way the Bank is organized. This concerns in particular (1) how its research is prioritized and used for decision-making, (2) how its leadership achieves a consensus between shareholders who hold different views on the role of government in the economy, and (3) how incentives for its staff emphasize disbursement and short-term success, and not capacity building and longer-term institutional sustainability. 2013-01-04T21:48:08Z 2013-01-04T21:48:08Z 2012-11 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/11/16985782/world-bank-governance-banks-efforts-help-developing-countries-build-state-capacity http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12112 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper; No. 6275 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	ADVOCACY AID FLOWS CAPACITY BUILDING DEVELOPING ECONOMIES DEVELOPMENT POLICIES GOVERNANCE GOVERNMENT ROLE LENDING RESEARCH STAFF INCENTIVES WORLD BANK LENDING WORLD BANK ORGANIZATION
spellingShingle	ADVOCACY AID FLOWS CAPACITY BUILDING DEVELOPING ECONOMIES DEVELOPMENT POLICIES GOVERNANCE GOVERNMENT ROLE LENDING RESEARCH STAFF INCENTIVES WORLD BANK LENDING WORLD BANK ORGANIZATION de Janvry, Alain Dethier, Jean-Jacques The World Bank and Governance : The Bank’s Efforts to Help Developing Countries Build State Capacity
relation	Policy Research Working Paper; No. 6275
description	This paper examines historically the World Bank's twin features: lending to developing economies to achieve tangible results and advocating specific development policies. Section 1 provides some conceptual underpinnings for the view that an effective state is essential for development. It asks whether development can be engineered, and state capacity increased, with large aid flows. Section 2 sketches the historical evolution of what characterizes the World Bank: lending to developing economies and advocacy of development policy. It concludes that, while the Bank discourse explicitly recognizes that developing countries need to improve their governance and build the capacity of the public sector to improve living standards, the Bank's performance in assisting governments in building state capacity and achieving better governance outcomes has been disappointing. Section 3 proposes an interpretation of why this has been the case. The interpretation is structural, and related to the way the Bank is organized. This concerns in particular (1) how its research is prioritized and used for decision-making, (2) how its leadership achieves a consensus between shareholders who hold different views on the role of government in the economy, and (3) how incentives for its staff emphasize disbursement and short-term success, and not capacity building and longer-term institutional sustainability.
format	Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
author	de Janvry, Alain Dethier, Jean-Jacques
author_facet	de Janvry, Alain Dethier, Jean-Jacques
author_sort	de Janvry, Alain
title	The World Bank and Governance : The Bank’s Efforts to Help Developing Countries Build State Capacity
title_short	The World Bank and Governance : The Bank’s Efforts to Help Developing Countries Build State Capacity
title_full	The World Bank and Governance : The Bank’s Efforts to Help Developing Countries Build State Capacity
title_fullStr	The World Bank and Governance : The Bank’s Efforts to Help Developing Countries Build State Capacity
title_full_unstemmed	The World Bank and Governance : The Bank’s Efforts to Help Developing Countries Build State Capacity
title_sort	world bank and governance : the bank’s efforts to help developing countries build state capacity
publishDate	2013
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/11/16985782/world-bank-governance-banks-efforts-help-developing-countries-build-state-capacity http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12112
_version_	1764419055882600448

The World Bank and Governance : The Bank’s Efforts to Help Developing Countries Build State Capacity

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