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The paper discusses recent issues and possible future directions of Japan's official development assistance (ODA). While Japan remains one of the world's largest donor nations, given its prolonged economic stagnation and mounting public sector debt, the Japanese government is under increasing public pressure to reduce ODA budgets and to use ODA in more explicit pursuit of Japan's own economic and political interests. Internationally, Japan continues to attract criticism for its emphasis on infrastructure‐related projects and for its restrained willingness to participate in multilateral partnerships. This paper argues that Japan can meet these domestic and international challenges by developing a coherent national strategy for ODA, broadly designed to enhance effectiveness, accountability and transparency. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Budget support has become an increasingly important instrument in the context of a partnership-based approach to development assistance. Compared to traditional modes of aid delivery, it promises greater country ownership, reduced transaction costs, better donor coordination, scaling up of poverty reduction and potentially greater development effectiveness. This book presents a timely and valuable review of key concepts, issues, experiences and emerging lessons relevant to budget support. It provides an overview of principal characteristics, expectations and concerns related to budget support, key design and implementation issues, as well as some practical experiences. The contributors include government representatives from developing countries, leading academic scholars, bilateral development agencies and development practitioners from international financial institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. They present a wide range of views on key issues such as the choice of instruments, alignment of budget support with country programs, predictability, and coordination and conditionality. The authors draw their insightful analysis on the contemporary research and evaluation work, as well as the broad practical experience with budget support. This book will be of great interest to practitioners in aid-recipient countries and international financial institutions, bilateral agencies and civil organizations involved in budget support.

This evaluation examines the relevance and effectiveness of Poverty Reduction Support Credits (PRSCs), introduced by the Bank in early 2001 to support comprehensive growth, improve social conditions, and reduce poverty in IDA countries. PRSCs were intended to allow greater country-ownership, provide more predictable annual support, exhibit more flexible conditionality, and strengthen budget processes in a results-based framework. By September 2009, the Bank had approved 99 PRSCs totaling some 7.5 billion and representing 38% percent of IDA policy based lending. The evaluation finds that in terms of process, PRSCs were effective in easing conditionality, increasing country ownership and aid predictability, stimulating dialogue between central and sectoral ministries, and improving donor harmonization. In terms of content, PRSCs succeeded in emphasizing public sector management and pro-poor service delivery. Yet in terms of results, it is difficult to distinguish growth and poverty outcomes in countries with PRSCs from other better performing IDA countries. There is scope for further simplifying the language of conditionality and underpinning PRSCs with better pro-poor growth diagnostics. PRSCs can also strengthen their results frameworks and limit sector policy content in multi-sector DPLs to high-level or cross-cutting issues. Today, Bank policy has subsumed PRSCs under the broader mantle of Development Policy Lending and the rationale for a separate ‘brand name’ although differences linger from the past. Since PRSCs and other policy-based lending have gradually converged in design, remaining differences compared to other Development Policy Loans should be clearly spelled out, or the separate PRSC brand name should be phased out.

This book analyzes the objectives and content of the World Bank's assistance program during the period 1994-2003, the economic and social development outcomes in Pakistan, and the contributions of the Bank to development outcomes.

This is the fifth Annual Review of Development Effectiveness (ARDE). This year ' s Review highlights the choice of lending and non-lending instruments and activities to achieve development objectives. It complements the Annual Report on Portfolio Performance, the Quality Assurance Group ' s assessment of the active lending portfolio and of recent analytical and advisory services. As in prior years, the Review concentrates on long-term development effectiveness trends. It finds that selecting the right combination and sequence of activities for a particular set of objectives can make the difference between success and failure. The findings of the 2001 ARDE demonstrate sustained progress in portfolio performance and suggest several directions for future Bank operations. First, the ongoing updating of the policy framework for investment and adjustment lending offer a good opportunity to offer operational guidance and improve instrument choice. Second in poor performing low-income countries simple operations, pilot projects, and non-financial activities have particular potential to deliver results. Third, for adjustment operations--a growing share of Bank lending-success is more likely when the domestic consensus for reform is strong and other Bank instruments are brought to bear both upstream and downstream of the adjustment process.

A New Approach compares and contrasts the various instruments and approaches used by the World Bank, IMF, European Commission and other development agencies to assess and reform public financial management systems in developing and transitional countries. It recommends an approach to assessment and reform that is country-led, has multi-donor support and is based on a coherent and integrated medium-term strategy for public financial management work, linked to a country’s poverty reduction strategy and other key policy goals. This report makes concrete and practical recommendations to streamline the coverage of instruments and enhance collaboration between, donors, governments and other stakeholders. In doing so, it provides a firm basis for achieving more efficient and effective use of aid flows and national budgetary resources, to reduce poverty and realize other key policy goals and development outcomes. Assessing and Reforming Public Financial Management was written as part of the work of the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Program, a partnership of the World Bank, European Commission, IMF and several bilateral donor agencies that was established in December 2001.

Balancing the Development Agenda examines the evolution of the World Bank and its operations during the presidency of James Wolfensohn. It examines the modernization of this global economic institution which is now focused on home-grown development planning where borrowing countries are in the driver's seat of their own development. It takes a closer look at the major development challenges addressed by the Bank during the past decade such as debt relief, corruption, and HIV/AIDS and provides a timeline of events that have shaped the Bank into the institution it is today.

The study documents, and reviews the Chilean experience in rural telecommunications, by focusing on the principles, practical organization, basic design, and outstanding issues for extension of a more advanced form of approach to communication, and access to information. It examines in depth the results, and success factors of the Telecommunications Development Fund, established in 1994, a success largely due to the extensive reliance on market forces to determine, and allocate subsidies, to minimal regulatory intervention, and relatively simple processing. The design of the Fund proved robust, and remains the leading example of a cost-effective solution to reduce access gaps in basic communication in emerging economies. However, questions remain on the sustainability of services for the long run, on how to support the small, but still excluded rural population, and on potential, further needs in urban areas.

This is the fifth Annual Review of Development Effectiveness (ARDE). This year's Review highlights the choice of lending and non-lending instruments and activities to achieve development objectives. It complements the Annual Report on Portfolio Performance, the Quality Assurance Group's assessment of the active lending portfolio and of recent analytical and advisory services. As in prior years, the Review concentrates on long-term development effectiveness trends. It finds that selecting the right combination and sequence of activities for a particular set of objectives can make the difference between success and failure. The findings of the 2001 ARDE demonstrate sustained progress in portfolio performance and suggest several directions for future Bank operations. First, the ongoing updating of the policy framework for investment and adjustment lending offer a good opportunity to offer operational guidance and improve instrument choice. Second in poor performing low-income countries simple operations, pilot projects, and non-financial activities have particular potential to deliver results. Third, for adjustment operations--a growing share of Bank lending-success is more likely when the domestic consensus for reform is strong and other Bank instruments are brought to bear both upstream and downstream of the adjustment process