Country Program Evaluation: Mexico (1990-2000)

Date
Jul 2003
This report (RE-259) presents the Office of Evaluation and Oversight's evaluation of the Bank's program with Mexico from 1990 to 2000. This evaluation is based on the standard evaluative criteria adopted by the Evaluation Cooperation Group of the multilateral development banks: relevance, efficiency of delivery-implementation, focus, and effectiveness. The purpose of the exercise is to improve the development effectiveness of the Bank's program. From the evaluation are drawn out recommendations as inputs to the discussion of how to improve the Bank's performance in the country. Our evaluation of the Bank's Mexico program, despite some positive experiences, identifies shortcomings in each of the evaluative dimensions; and these findings should have implications for subsequent programming cycles. Five core recommendations are offered for consideration in subsequent programming cycles: improve knowledge transfer, define priorities, specify results and introduce accountability, re-emphasize completeness of project design and progress data, and introduce a pro-poor tilt to all Bank operations.