Strengthen rewards and leadership signals at all levels of the organization to reinforce the importance of self-evaluation. For example, this can be done by promoting use of the knowledge generated from self-evaluations by teams, practices, and senior management, and by balancing the current excessive focus on outcome ratings and disconnects with more deliberative use of monitoring and self-evaluation information by teams and managers (applies to World Bank and IFC).abc
Demand from the Bank Group Board and management for knowledge and evidence to enhance development effectiveness has not been matched by a corporate learning culture. Managerial signals emphasize business volume more than they do results, performance, and good self-evaluation tensions over ratings and disconnects distract from learning and there is room to more consistently infuse existing learning, strategic, and planning processes with evaluative evidence. The Board has a role also to reinforce these signals.
World Bank Management agrees on the critical importance of explicit or implicit signaling that affects incentives and institutional cultureâfor example, the focus on business volume rather than results and learning. Management will explore ways to rebalance messaging and signals that cascade down to operational staff (e.g., through corporate review meetings and annual Memorandum of Understanding for performance monitoring) to strengthen institutional focus on results as well as learning and adaptation throughout the project cycle. Such signaling should also promote greater openness to discussing operationsâ failures and shortcomings, and should encourage the use of such learning to maximize development effectiveness.
IFC Management supports this recommendation about increasing incentives for staff to use the results and knowledge generated by self-evaluation to improve operations and strategies. IFC has been enhancing its evaluations and feedback loops in line with business needs as part of the enhancements to the results framework.
IFC Action 3.1: Adjust the guidelines for Procedures: Investment Operations-New Business to reflect past evaluative evidence and lessons (based on self and independent evaluations) in PDS-Concept document.
Timeline: FY18
IFC Action 3.2: Adjust the guidelines for Procedures: Investment Operations-New Business for project decision meeting chairs to facilitate a discussion on how past evaluative evidence and lessons (based on self and independent evaluations) were reflected into the discussed project at IRM meetings.
Timeline: FY18
IFC Action 3.3: Complete staff guidelines for how to identify, capture and reuse lessons in evaluations and develop complementary learning.
Timeframe: FY18
IFC Action 3.4: Organize learning sessions between management and operational teams on selected XPSRs and PCRs for staff to discuss openly and safely what worked and what did not.
Timeframe: FY18
IFC Action 3.5: Conduct internal knowledge sharing events in IFC that present syntheses of lessons/ experiences around clusters of projects coming from XPSRs, PCRs or other self-evaluations (e.g. industry, regions or types of countries/markets)
Timeline: FY18
IFC has proposed, and in some cases started, several initiatives to better identify and mine lessons and making them readily available to team for use. Past experience and findings from the ROSES evaluation caution that merely putting in place knowledge management tools may not suffice, that "lessons" as defined by many self-evaluations are often of low value, and that teams do not consistently use electronic knowledge management tools. As such, the face-to-face format used by GKLO is of interest. More needs to be done however on all of this and to ensure that staff perceive clear incentives and encouragement to use self-evaluation as one of the tools to strengthen operational quality.
Action 3.1: IFCâs Global Knowledge and Learning Office (GKLO) is currently piloting text-analytics software to create automated knowledge packages for investment teams at the pre-PDS Concept stage (expected to be operational in FY18 Q3). The software will aggregate operational resources, research and lessons, pulling from SmartLessons, Lessonsfinder, and other lessons repositories. The Investment Support Unit (CSSIS) has been contacted on the actions needing to adjust the guidelines in the near future.Action 3.2: Discussions are underway with CSSIS to coordinate the changes in IFC guidelines and procedures to incorporate lessons learned into IRM meetings. Additionally, GKLO is also implementing the Bankâs DeCODE approach (http://www.globaldeliveryinitiative.org/decode) to IFC to identify private sector development terminology, and mine IFCâs project completion reports, supervision reports and XPSRs to anticipate delivery challenges for new projects. Moreover, GKLO is developing an approach to extract lessons from multiple projects in a particular sector to identify trends and a better view about what works and what doesnât. Both activities will allow decision meeting chairs to facilitate a robust discussion on past evidence and lessons.Action 3.3: GKLO has created a generic lessons template, informed by a cross IFC-IEG-WB collaboration to identify the elements of a good lesson. IFCâs Special Operations department has also created a lessons template adjusted to their business need. More departments are expected to follow suit where needed.Action 3.4: GKLO is currently piloting an approach to extract lessons and recommendations for future projects after project completion involving the project team and project leadership in a facilitated face-to-face discussion that will shed light on what has worked and what has not. Action 3.5: Yearly, GKLO runs KNovember, a cross-IFC forum that offers a unique peer-led learning & knowledge exchange platform to showcase insights, tools, knowledge resources and operational lessons learned that staff can leverage in their daily work. In addition, Advisory and Industry departments run Knowledge and Learning weeks that include sessions focused on lessons learned.IFC also continues to share knowledge across the WBG through the Results Measurement and Evidence Stream (RMES) which fosters professionals on results measurement internally and across the WBG. RMES conducts chalk talks, brown bag lunches, bi-weekly newsletters and an annual WBG event to share knowledge and experiences on key projects (e.g. education sector projects in IFC and its clients Laureate and Uniminuto).