Linking Global Partnerships and the Bank’s Country Programs: Lessons from GFDRR and FCPF

1. Linking Global Partnerships and the Bank’s Country Programs: Lessons from GFDRR and FCPF Chris Gerrard Evaluation Week March 19, 2013

2. Objectives of This Session • To present a framework for addressing linkages between GRPPs and the Bank’s country programs • To hear perspectives from regional operational staff working with two programs that IEG has recently reviewed and that have had some success in this regard, but not without challenges: • Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) – AbhasJha, Sector Manager for Transport, Urban and Disaster Risk Management for East Asia and the Pacific • Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) – Paola Agostini, FCPF Regional Coordinator for Africa • To have a discussion about these issues – starting with Warren Evans, former ENV Director, 2004-11

3. Global-Country Linkages Have Been A Consistent Theme in the Bank’s Strategic Documents • January 2001: “A Framework for Managing Global Programs and Partnerships”: • “Partnerships should demonstrate a clear linkage to our core institutional objectives and, above all, to our country operational work.” • March 2003: “Update on Management of Global Programs and Partnerships”: • “Global programs must take into account client country priorities as expressed through PRSPs or similar country-owned strategy documents. . . . Going forward, the principle of subsidiarity will be more rigorously applied when deciding whether a global program should be established and whether an activity should be carried out by the global program rather than, as the preferred option, implemented through country operations. If resources are mobilized through global programs, they should be channeled as much as possible directly to the country level and services should be provided as an integral part of country operations.”

4. A Consistent Theme (cont.) • April 2005: A Strategic Framework for the Bank’s Global Programs and Partnerships: • “Global programs and country-led approaches should be complementary. The Bank should . . . . forge better links between global and developing country priorities. . . . . Each of the regional and network vice presidential units will now be held explicitly accountable to . . . improve the alignment and linkages of global programs and partnerships with country- and region-based development strategies.” • August 2007: Global Public Goods: A Framework for the Role of the Bank: • The Bank will “use PRS, CAS and sector strategies as the platform to work with countries on strengthening the links between national priorities and global/ regional public goods. The Bank needs to bridge the partial disconnect between its country programs managed by the Regions, and its work on global issues managed by the Network Anchors. Management will explore how best to ensure a more systematic treatment of global issues as part of Bank country-level work.”

5. Corporate Strategies Relating to GRPPs

6. However, the Bank Has Not Operationalized These Good Intentions • The Bank has not yet specified what kinds of linkages it expects: • For different kinds of programs (knowledge networks, technical assistance, or investments) • For programs funded by DGF or trust funds • For programs located inside and outside the Bank • IEG’s 2011 Report, The World Bank’s Involvement in Global and Regional Partnership Programs, found that only 4 of the 17 programs reviewed for the report had strong linkages with the Bank’s country operations

7. 17 GRPPs Reviewed by IEG, 2006 --11

8. IEG’s 2011 Report Recommended • The Bank should have an explicit engagement strategy for each GRPP in which it is involved, including the following: • The expected roles of the Bank in the program at both the global and country levels, along with the expected duration of these roles • How the program’s activities are expected to be linked with the Bank’s country operations • How the risks to the Bank’s participation will be identified and managed, including conflicts of interest among the Bank’s roles in the program.

9. Management “Partially Agreed” Management sees the need for a more holistic approach to partnerships as envisioned by explicit engagement strategies and will work to provide guidance to task team leaders of new GRPPs, informed by the work on the new partnership management framework and the work of the Matrix Leadership Team. However, Management would modify the recommendation on country-level linkages. Instead of an explicit “link with the Bank’s country operations,” the design of country-level linkages within the engagement strategy should be tailored to cases where the Bank will be the primary interface at country level, versus others where the Bank’s operational role is limited, or where the program objective, such as global knowledge or research, has an indirect linkage to Bank country operations.

10. Three Major Types of Linkages Strategic Linkages: The strategic objectives of the GRPP and the Bank are aligned. Operational Linkages: The GRPP is financing or supporting activities (such as technical assistance or investments) that are directly contributing to or complementing the implementation of the Bank’s country programs, or vice versa. Institutional Linkages: The GRPP’s partners and the Bank have non-operational linkages such as attending each other’s annual meetings or staff exchanges that also contribute to the achievement of mutually shared objectives.

11. Some Considerations Linkages are a means to an end, not an end in themselves – to achieve mutually shared objectives. Strategic alignment will rarely be 100 percent; one of the roles of GRPPs is to be incubators of innovation that, if successful, the Bank can subsequently incorporate into its own work. The Bank’s sector strategy papers (typically of 10 years duration) are not well synchronized with GRPPs’ own strategic planning periods (typically 3-5 years). Circumstances are constantly changing, rendering one or the other less relevant.

12. GFDRR & FCPF: Objectives & Activities

13. GFDRR & FCPF: Governance & Financing

14. GFDRR & FCPF: World Bank Roles

15. GFDRR Global-Country Linkages • Strategic • Closely aligned with OP 8.00 on “Rapid Response to Crises and Emergencies,” 2008 Climate Change Framework, 2010 Urban Strategy, and 2012 Environment Strategy • Operational • Regional DRM coordinators channel country-level demands for DRR assistance to the GFDRR Secretariat • Bank’s TTLs supervise GFDRR-financed activities • Institutional • UNISDR is a member and UNDP-BCPR and IFRC are permanent observers on the Consultative Group • UNISDR has implemented Track I activities • Bilateral donors (members and observers) undertake their own disaster reduction and recovery activities

16. FCPF: Global-Country Linkages • Strategic • Bank’s Board approved the Bank’s roles in FCPF in September 2007, based on the Bank’s experience in designing and implementing pilot activities that pioneer carbon markets to mitigate climate change • Bank’s poverty reduction mission is closely linked with climate change mitigation and adaptation • Operational • Regional FCPF coordinators collaborate with and receive financial support from the Facility Management Team • Bank’s TTLs supervise FCPF grants • FCPF and FIP are working in six countries in common • Institutional • UN-REDD and UNFCCC are observers on the FCPF Participants Committee • FCPF and UN-REDD hold their meetings back-to-back due to a high level of overlap in membership • FAO, IDB, and UNDP are also Delivery Partners • Bilateral donors co-finance REDD+ activities in countries that have approved REDD strategies

17. GFDRR: Major IEG Findings & Lessons GFDRR is active in a field with many players; its comparative advantage is in providing technical and financial assistance that is integrated with the Bank’s country operations. There has been a quantitative and qualitative improvement in the way in which the Bank’s country partnership strategies have addressed disaster risk issues, and a clear shift toward DRR in Bank-supported investment projects since 2006. The Bank is playing such a dominant role in GFDRR: Is this still a partnership program with shared governance (as indicated in the Charter), or essentially a Bank program supported by donor trust funds (as it appears to be in practice)? The program needs more rigorous systems for reporting its work plans, selecting activities, monitoring their implementation and assessing their results at completion.

18. FCPF: Major IEG Findings & Lessons Given the scale and cross-sectoral nature of REDD+, FCPF needs enhanced strategic alignment with World Bank corporate goals and greater integration with country operations to be effective. Given the uncertainty about future financial flows for REDD+, the World Bank needs to articulate how it plans to support REDD+ going forward, to meet client expectations about future financing flows. Until there is greater clarity about the contours of future REDD+ financing, the Bank should give priority to “no regrets” investments and activities such as legal and policy support for land tenure and forest governance reforms that dovetail with the Bank’s wider objectives in the forest sector.

19. Questions for Discussion • Are strategic, operational, and institutional linkages a useful framework for thinking about linkages between GRPPs and the Bank’s country operations? • For technical assistance programs like GFDRR and FCPF that are located in the Bank: • What is working well, and why? • What is not working well, and why not? • What kinds of linkages should the Bank expect: • For other types of programs (such as knowledge networks)? • For programs not located in the Bank? • For programs supported by DGF grants?

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