Institutional development in World Bank projects : a cross sectoral review

As the scope of Bank work in institutional development ( ID ) widens, the design of ID in Bank projects needs to pay increased attention to several emerging problems and inconsistencies : a) without country specific sector ID strategy, there is no long term perspective to guide project design; b) uneven quality of institutional analysis and the limited attention to ID issues in economic and sector work can weaken the design process; c) the focus of ID work on project implementation limits concern for project sustainability; and d) more complex, sectorwide ID components call for more rather than less supervision. The task, the author concludes is not to broaden ID work but to deepen it. He recommends : 1) encourage operational task managers to supplement skills at their command by mobilizing experts within the Bank to help analysis and design; 2) increase Bank expertise in this area; 3) use outside experts, as needsed; 4) expose Bank staff to a range of analytical frameworks to improve institutional analysis; and 5) make joint ( Bank and borrower ) institutional diagnosis and design a norm, giving borrowers a greater sense of ownership and creating a solid basis for sustainability.