Learning and Innovating for Development: Reducing Poverty on a Global Scale

1. Reducing Poverty on a Global Scale Learning and Innovating for DevelopmentABCDE ConferenceFrannie LéautierTokyo, May 29, 2006

2. Why a Shanghai Conference? RESULTS SCALE LEARNING

3. Shanghai Global Learning Process:What was unique about the methodology? • Approach: Complex aggregation of multiple perspectives of individuals and organizations • Content: Lessons distilled from 106 case studies, 6 video documentaries, 11 field visit reports, 28 recorded structured global dialogues (videoconference and online discussions among regions), and decision-making conference with high visibility • Process: centered around a common learning experience between practitioners and policy makers at both national and international levels • Evaluation of the Learning Experience (WBIEG) to extract key lessons in process • Learning Guide: to capture the main findings and make the lessons more useful for the Bank’s operational departments and development practitioners outside

4. Key Questions Asked of Case Writers • How have countries achieved poverty reduction at scale? What did they do? How did they do it? • What can be learned from the successes (Asian experience, pockets of success elsewhere) and failures? • What are the key enabling factors for success?, What seemed to be the main constraints holding countries back?

5. Definition of Scaling Up • Macroeconomic: strong growth as the solid foundation for reducing poverty and inequalities at the country level • Inter-temporal: duration, sustainability, continuity of projects/programs and further beneficiary outreach • Spatial: across geographies such as rural-urban, one province to next • International/Cross-border: cooperation, commitment (trade, aid, debt), knowledge and ideas

6. Analysis Framework

7. Images from Shanghai

8. Images of Shanghai (cont.)

9. Lessons from Shanghai on Scaling-Up: • Power of Ideas: Ideas travel (EDUCO, • Bolsa Familia-Progresa, micro-finance), but the rest is learning by doing • 2. Role of Institutions: Building institutions critical, requires long time horizon, experimentation • 3. Country specificity: is central; there is no one-size-fits-all blue-print; need to tailor and adapt ideas to country circumstances

10. Lessons from Shanghai on Scaling Up: • Binding Constraints: Scaling-up requires focusing on the binding constraints: • Financing: “a little money goes a long way but it’s hard to get a little money” • Accountability Framework – putting the client first • Capacity to implement, measure, evaluate, and adapt

11. Lessons from Shanghai on Scaling Up: • Implementation Process: simplifying implementation arrangements, standardizing processes, unbundling decision-making can promote expansion and replication, but there are limits • Learning process: enable country practitioners to share their experiences, direct interaction between practitioners, can facilitate scaling-up • 7. Management Matters: focus on results, measurement (indicators), evaluation, and feedback

12. What has led to success? • Maintaining macro-stability and sustaining broad-based economic growth • Developing and sustaining institutions that produce good governance • Creating an environment in which learning and adaptation as well as mid-course correction can take place

13. How have countries done that? • Commitment and Leadership: emergence of good leaders, formation of coalitions for change, knowing where to start and how to sequence reforms, continuity and staying power, defining goals and getting short term results, speed of action • Learning and Innovation: processes for discovering what works, adapting practices and fine-tuning processes, sharing promising models/ideas, using crises as opportunity windows for change • Approach to monitoring and evaluation: use of data for information, accountability and performance enhancement, for policy and decision-making, and for coalition forming • Financing (external, domestic, private sector, partnerships, user fees), fiscal space, certainty/predictability, • External catalyst: technical and knowledge support to support home grown reforms and trigger fundamental changes; openness to international cooperation and agreements

14. Important Lessons in Leadership • Different approaches to getting coalitions for sustained change: single leader in place for long time (Korea, Malaysia, Uganda); embedding implementation in centralized body/agency (China, Malaysia); smart communication with technocratic support (Uganda); • Political versus policy continuity: compromises in a democratic setting (Chile), smooth transition across regimes (Malaysia, Korea)

15. How do you create an environment for Learning and Innovation? • Competition: Costa Rica Private Health providers-- performance culture • Decentralization: Costa Rica, El Salvador, China, more responsibility and accountability • Involvement/participation: ideas are generated and shared (Chile) • Crisis: mother of invention (Indonesia) • Support risk taking: India, Tamil Nadu infrastructure financing, China • Ad hoc trials: HIV/AIDS harm reduction approaches in India (Manipur) • Incentives: building a results culture (Morocco Rural Roads), rewards for achievement (Mexico “Oportunidades”) • Explicit Experimentation: decision to experiment and learn in China

16. Systemic Change: Morocco Rural Roads Project Development Outcomes $, ideas Production Inputs Access to Services Agricultural Productivity: Land used for vegetable and fruit increased by 40% Education Outcomes: Primary enrollment more than doubled and quality of education improved Health Outcomes: Doubling in use of health care facilities Frequency of visits by women to health center increased from 1.1 to 2.4 per year Cost of inputs: reduction in costs of agricultural inputs to market by 59% compared to 58% increase in non-project area Cost of outputs: reduction of 74% in cost of agricultural outputs compared to 6% reduction in non-project Areas Access: villages with easy access to roads from 43% to 70% Time: time to reach markets and social services down 50% Traffic: 24%growth in commercial traffic per year

17. Scaling Up Reform on a Regional Basis: The Southern and Eastern Europe Trade and Transport Facilitation Project Regional Impact User Based Monitoring Common Performance Measures P4 P5 Pilots in each country P1 P2 P3 Albania Bosnia Bulgaria Croatia Macedonia Moldova Romania Serbia

18. Information, Data, Analysis and Monitoring • Need systematic monitoring and evaluation • Need good performance indicators—simple, trackable, linked to objectives • Integrate data and analysis to communication and decision making • Define outcomes and track progress towards them (Morocco Rural Roads) • Cases demonstrating this issue: China---South West Poverty Project; Indonesia---KDP; Morocco---Rural Roads Project

19. Tracking the Results Chain: China Rural Water $ Health Outcomes Access to Services Health Behaviors Water consumption: from 20 to 41 liters per capita per day Time spent fetching: from 183 to zero hrs/year Access to latrines: from 4 % to 23% For Primary School Students: Hand-washing before meals: from 73% to 89% Hand-washing after using toilet: from 56% to 72% Nail cleaning: from 36% to 56% For Housewives: Hand-washing before meals: from 25% to 72% Use of soap for hand-washing: from 65% to 92% Washing fruit before eating: from 34% to 77% Covering kitchenware and food: from 61% to 92% Reduction in incidence rates: enteritis by 88% dysentery by 80% Hepatitis A by 78% Impact 1985-1986: 29 project villages: incidence of intestinal diseases down by 68% 24 non-project villages: incidence of intestinal diseases down by 30% Training

20. Special Case of China:The Reform Context • Sequencing: started with rural reform and opening for trade, with rapid growth and significant reduction in rural poverty from 1978-89 • Challenges: Poverty reduction slowed and income inequality increased in 1990-93: political leaders were seeking answers • Response: New ideas: (a) multi-sectoral and participatory approach; (b) direct targeting of households for the first time; (c) large scale cascading into the National 8-7 poverty reduction plan for 1994-2000

21. The Southwest Poverty Reduction Project Key features • Embedded in National 8-7 Program • $464 million spent in 3 provinces from 1995-2001 • With 8 components aimed at: • a) demonstrating comprehensive, multi-sectoral and participatory approach; • b) facilitating “market friendly” labor mobility from poor to better off regions; • c) upgrading poverty monitoring at local and national levels; and • d) reducing absolute poverty in 35 of the poorest counties through better targeting

22. Evaluated Impact:1993-2000

23. What has been scaled up? • Labor mobility idea: through demonstration effect, and government support at all levels. China has 100+ million migrant workers in cities. A project [Poverty V] is under discussion • Multi-sectoral comprehensive approach: used in Poverty II and III • Village and Household Targeting: adopted nationwide, extended to 146,000 poor villages in China • Long-term Vision/Phased Implementation: adopted nationwide in the Outline for Poverty reduction and Development in China’s Rural Areas (2001-2010) • Poverty monitoring: adopted by National Bureau of Statistics. An annual Poverty Monitoring Report is published since 1997

24. Why has China succeeded in scaling up? • Leadership and Commitment: Home-grown reform, strong support across all levels of government and grassroot units • Institutional Innovation and Experimentation: pragmatic and experimental approach in institutional reform allowed China to avoid economic downturns and instability • Balanced Approach: strong focus on rural issues and poverty targeting, but also on growth and improved investment climate. This led to rapid growth in coastal regions –key to job creation for poorer regions

25. Driving Factors for Scaling Up: the Culture of Learning & Measuring • Institution building and capacity enhancement • Monitoring, evaluation and accountability

26. Lessons learned by China • Balanced Growth: labor mobility component was successful, but for replication you need booming economy and abundant job opportunities • Fiscal Decentralization: Farmers have heavy burdens of taxes and fees (tuition for rural primary schools is relatively high) reflecting mismatch of local government responsibilities and their resources • Rural microcredit: is critical yet lacking –China could learn from others • Risk taking is key: some components can fail--two project components were less successful—support to staff to encourage risk taking is key

27. Global lessons • Scaling up is possible if we combine good ideas with requisite financing, in an environment conducive for development • Affirmation of prior hypotheses: leadership and commitment, experimentation and learning, institutional innovation, external catalysts • Harmonization of donor practices in design and implication makes a difference • Learning and Exchange among practitioners is best way to speed up transmission of ideas • Financing for development is key for scaling up • Approach to measuring results is deal-breaker, but need to invest in learning environment

28. Credibility of these Lessons • Comparison between Shanghai lessons and those from the Lessons of the 1990’s study • Comparison of lessons from Shanghai with rigorous impact evaluations • 16 out of 103 case studies had rigorous impact evaluation (chapter 6) • These lessons are cited in those 16 cases • Evaluation of participants in the various processes during the extraction of lessons learned • WBIEG evaluation indicates that this was a very valuable learning experience

29. Evaluating the Shanghai Process Based on four activities: • An online survey of participants (respondents from 49 countries); • One-on-one interviews with participants and organizers (102 interviews in 10 countries); • Focus group discussions with participants and organizers; and, • A desktop review of materials relevant to the Shanghai experience.

30. Quality and Effectiveness of the Shanghai Learning Process • Participants were highly satisfied with the quality and effectiveness of the Shanghai learning processes • Active and open engagement of practitioners and policymakers is what distinguishes Shanghai from other global learning activities

31. Transferability and Applicability of the Shanghai Learning Products • Over 90 percent of participants report having used what they acquired from • the Shanghai learning process • Main impacts have been at the personal level • Most significant impact: the process of learning (tools and approaches) that • Shanghai activities engendered

32. Effects of the Shanghai Conference • Highest conference ratings are from participants from middle-income countries • Conference location matters for impact: Shanghai was also a “field visit” • to the majority of participants

33. Key Outcomes • Public Good from Lessons Learned • Wealth of ideas embedded in case studies • Process of experiential learning • Basis for impact assessment and results monitoring • Shanghai Consensus • Consultation process • Key expectations/actions to date? • Operational Agenda • Staff learning • Modernization work • Harmonization agenda

34. Post ShanghaiWork at the Regional Level: Africa • Using Shanghai lessons to support broader capacity development agenda—Country Director-Sector Manager dialogue; Quality group • Mainstreaming South-South peer learning approaches, keeping client in “expert” chair • Integrating Shanghai lessons into Africa project design – Lesotho Legal Reform • Partner Learning: AfDB staff learning event, April 2005 • Ethiopia CAS – building on Shanghai Cases

35. Post Shanghai work at the Country Level: China • China leadership role: China announced $100 million aid to African, Asian Development Funds; $83 million to tsunami victims. • China increasingly seen as source of knowledge and experiences on poverty reduction. • Establishment of China International Center for Poverty Reduction (CIPRC). • Poverty Forum for East Asia Region to be held in Beijing, April 19-22, 2005 • Client Learning—GDLN dialogues reached over 1700 participants in poor and western regions

36. Post Shanghai Work in Partner Organizations • Asian Development Bank (ADB) • Cross-regional exchange with Inter-American Development Bank (ADB cases to be shared at IDB Annual Meeting in Okinawa on April 6-12, 2005) • Cross regional GDLNs on case studies from LAC and EAP/SA • African Development Bank (AfDB) Joint AfDB-WB Workshop (April, 2005) • Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) GDLN on transfer of equity programs and urban issues • DfiD – Shanghai lessons featured in internal website

37. Press Quotes Washington Post Arts of Development By Sebastian Mallaby Monday, May 24, 2004 “ A strange reversal is underway in the development business . . . The conference that opens tomorrow in Shanghai, convened by World Bank President James Wolfensohn, will celebrate this pragmatism. Rather than treating development as a quasi-science, it will present it as an art, in which the heroes are the resourceful managers who implement programs. In place of top-down analysis by first-world econometricians, it will feature bottom-up case studies presented by third-world practitioners. Just about every speaker in the two-day program will come from the developing world; the delegates from the rich North will be there to listen to them. It will be hard to turn the conference into newspaper headlines. But it will have captured the real spirit of development. “

38. Questions/Issues • Robustness of evidence/ lessons learned: how many of these cases have been subject to impact evaluations? • Operational implications: what implications may the Shanghai lessons have for IFI procedures? • Evaluating CDD approaches: have the lessons learned from evaluation on CDD been sufficiently considered?

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