Resource information
This country program evaluation (CPE)
assesses the outcomes of the World Bank Group (WBG) program
in Timor-Leste during the review period (2000 to 2010). The
WBG’s strategy during this period was to support the
government of the nascent country in three broad areas: (a)
poverty alleviation and the provision of basic social
services, including health and education; (b) development of
state institutions, including creating good governance and
building the capacity of state institutions; and (c)
promoting sustainable nonpetroleum growth, especially
through the development of agriculture and the private
sector. The CPE rates the overall outcome of its support to
the country over the review period as moderately
unsatisfactory. The Bank Group strategy was broadly
congruent with the country‘s own aspirations, but its
relevance and effectiveness waned through the evaluation
period. To boost the WBG‘s role as an effective partner in
Timor Leste’s development, independent evaluation group
(IEG) recommends that the WBG: (i) set its key objective as
one of supporting vigorous and sustainable non-oil growth,
creating jobs and improving infrastructure; (ii) in
consultation with development partners, sharply prioritize
its program, being realistic about time frames; (iii)
increase its focus on effective human resource development
for institution building and improved governance; (iv)
follow more closely its own guidance on dealing with fragile
states; (v) ensure more active management of its assistance
program, strengthening its capacity to deliver timely
high-quality policy and technical advice; (vi) be realistic
with regard to the situation on the ground and what is
needed to attain development objectives; (vii) make
International Finance Corporation’s (IFC’s) interventions of
sufficient scale to address the objectives of its program;
and (viii) bolster monitoring and evaluation (M and E) by
focusing on a few key results and improving statistical
capacity to obtain reliable data of sufficient frequency.
