World: World Bank Group Support in Situations Involving Conflict-Induced Displacement - An Independent Evaluation
Highlights
In 2016, the World Bank Group stepped up its engagement in situations of conflictinduced forced displacement at the global and country levels and adopted a new approach to its engagement that recognizes displacement as a development challenge that must be addressed to attain the World Bank Group’s twin goals.
Since fiscal year 2016, the Bank Group’s analytical, financial, and operational support has become more aligned with its stated development approach building on lessons from past engagements. This is an important shift.
Advisory services and analytics have shifted from providing a rationale for Bank Group engagement in situations involving conflictinduced forced displacement to contextspecific needs assessments focused on evidence-based, medium-term solutions.
The World Bank successfully mobilized new financing to support situations involving conflict-induced forced displacement and crowded-in funding from other donors. World Bank support for populations forcibly displaced by conflict and their host communities has increased, become more balanced, and focused on priority sectors to
generate economic opportunities. These are significant achievements.
At the same time, the Bank Group has not yet fully leveraged its comparative
advantages in implementing its development approach. Evidence generated
from analytical and advisory services needs to be translated better into
context-specific policy dialogue, project design, and programming.
Project design, in particular, could further address the specific needs and
vulnerabilities of conflict-induced forcibly displaced persons and their host
communities, especially the specific needs and vulnerabilities of the women
and children among them. Projects should also more systematically include
specific indicators to monitor and evaluate the effects on affected populations.
The World Bank engages and coordinates with humanitarian actors and
development organizations at various levels, but coordination could be further
strengthened. Additionally, select partnerships at the country level could be
leveraged to ensure sector coherence and to foster policy dialogue to enact
institutional reforms toward self-reliance that address the vulnerabilities of
forcibly displaced persons. The Bank Group could also increase engagement
to catalyze the private sector’s role in situations of conflict-induced forced
displacement.
Internal and external factors inhibit the Bank Group’s development
response to address situations of conflict-induced forced displacement.
Internal factors include varying levels of active leadership in Country
Management Units, growing but still limited Bank Group experience, and
incentives. External factors include the varying nature of displacement
situations, government capacity, macroeconomic and development
challenges, and complex political economy factors.
