Analysis of Research Department's Activities and the Work of the Bank: Economic Assessment Reports (EARs)/High Level Consultation Meetings (Encerronas)

Date
Oct 2001
The principal objective of this study is to ascertain the impact of EARs on country papers, the Bank's operations program, and the countries' adoption of RES proposals. To achieve this objective, a comparative qualitative analysis of the encerronas for the various countries was prepared, the content of the supporting EARs was reviewed, and a series of meetings was held with the main officials involved in the encerronus. To study the interaction between content and the discussion of issues at the encerronus, certain specific cross-cutting issues are for all the counties were selected on the basis of two complementary criteria: their repetition at all the encerronus and their obvious importance for establishing the countries' development strategies. The issues were: (a) privatization and infrastructure; (b) exchange policy and dollarization; and (c) decentralization. The study covers 10 countries in which encerronus were held between 1997 and August 2000, based on the documents provided by RES.