The document discusses the ieGovern initiative, which aims to conduct rigorous impact evaluations of World Bank governance projects to improve project results and further the evidence base on effective governance reforms. It provides an overview of progress made so far, including 18 additional evaluations launched in 2015 across sectors like civil service reform, justice, and procurement. Current projects are listed for several countries focusing on issues like legal aid, procurement modernization, and decentralization. Opportunities for outside collaboration are highlighted to further strengthen the initiative's evaluation portfolio and governance knowledge.

1. RATIONALE
In developing countries, a third of GDP flows through
government organizations. These investments provide
essential public services ranging from health and
education to investment in infrastructure. Understanding
the determinants of the productivity of these
organizations is key to improving the capacity of the
public sector and the effective delivery of public goods.
Governance reforms are often long term, complex,
and difficult to measure. Rigorous evidence on what
works in the sector is, therefore, in short supply with
the governance field representing less than 3 percent
of registered impact evaluations.1
The ieGovern initiative
aims to help bridge this gap by extending rigorous
evaluation methods to the portfolio of World Bank
governance projects and beyond.
PROGRESS TO DATE
ieGovern is a joint program between the World Bank
Development Research Group’s Impact Evaluation Unit
and the Governance Global Practice created to help bridge
the gap between designing good projects or policies and
implementing them. Launched in June 2013, ieGovern
levers its unique access to government partners through
World Bank projects in order to produce evidence that
both (i) improves project results and (ii) pushes the frontier
of available evidence of what works in governance reform.
In January 2015, the program was expanded during an
Impact Evaluation Design Workshop to fund and launch
18 additional impact evaluations to complement the first
generation of studies focused on the Africa Region.
The first phase of the initiative was focused mainly
in the Africa region with IEs in the sectors of (i) civil
service reform, (ii) justice, and (iii) subnational public
service management. It has since grown to include
(iv) domestic resource mobilization, and (v) procurement,
as summarized below.
EXPANSION
The team is developing the depth of the program by
increasing the level of rigor and capability of the impact
evaluation designs and strengthen the research agenda in
governance. We aim to improve the research conducted
under this agenda by:
1
3ie Impact Evaluation Repository (http://www.3ieimpact.org/
evidence/impact-evaluations/), accessed 1/14/2016.
i2iDIME
TRANSFORM DEVELOPMENT
i2iDIME
TRANSFORM DEVELOPMENT
• increasing knowledge of successes and challenges
• strengthening partnerships an networks of academics
and implementers
• discussing macro and micro-challenges in the
design and implementation of impact evaluation for
governance.
This work will support the framework built around
mechanisms of incentives, demand-side and top-
down accountability, constraints relaxing, and delivery
mechanisms that underlie impacts in themes of
governance.
The initiative aims to continue to search for novel
opportunities across the World Bank Group and other
donors to embed rigorous evaluations in governance
reform operations. We hope to expand the network of
researchers with whom we work on these evaluations.
CURRENT PROJECTS
Civil Service Reform
Bangladesh How can marginalized communities be
integrated into local constituencies so
that their interest are addressed by local
governments?
India How can a new mode of interaction with
marginal groups address barriers that prevent
excluded groups from benefiting from public
services and social schemes? How can this
improve their trust in government systems?
Guinea How can we reduce individual and structural
HR management constraints through
government innovation?
Liberia How can different incentive schemes for land
officers and provide better guidance to the
government on how to manage land authorities?
Tanzania How can local governments and beneficiary
communities make the most of limited
resources to increase the sustainability of
public infrastructure?
Pakistan How can streamlined information flows
within the public service improve project
performance?
DRC Does a new optimal recruitment and
training strategy improve young professional
employment?
IEGOVERN: IMPACT
EVALUATION FOR PUBLIC
SECTOR GOVERNANCE
AND JUSTICEFebruary 2016

2. CURRENT PROJECTS
Procurement
Bangladesh What are the effects of rolling out an
e-procurement system on competition and
market entry for new firms, prices, and value
for money of government purchases?
Brazil What are the impacts of the adoption of
e-procurement for the purchase of common
goods and services?
Colombia What are the impacts of purchasing school
meals through a centrally coordinated
Framework Agreement on meal quality,
provision, and student learning and health
outcomes?
Swaziland Can training of health facility staff and audits
of medication distribution reduce stock out
rates and drug leakage of health facilities?
Philippines What are the effects of civil society
involvement in the procurement processes of
municipal development projects on value-for-
money?
Contact: Jurgen Rene Blum, email: jblum@worldbank.org.
Michael Roscitt, email:mroscitt@worldbank.org
Liberia How can contributions of different sources
of motivation improve performance of public
sector workers?
Pakistan How can improved monitoring and incentives
to public sector workers improve public
service delivery?
Contact: Daniel Rogger, email: drogger@worldbank.org.
(continued)
Justice
Azerbaijan What is the impact of providing legal aid to
unserved populations? What is the quality
and demand for legal aid offered by different
providers? Is it more efficient to provide
multiple legal aid service providers or a sole-
provider system?
Kazakhstan How can we increase access to justice in
places where vulnerable populations face
challenges exercising their legal rights?
Senegal How does the speed of justice affect firms?
Sierra
Leone
Do legal aid mediation services make mining
and agricultural firms invest more in local
development?
Kenya Does a change in institutional conditions
for judicial staff lead to more efficient case
processing and better service provision?
Contact: Bilal Siddiqi, email: bsiddiqi@worldbank.org.
Decentralization
DRC How can we best harness accountability
mechanisms to improve service provision?
Cambodia How can supply-side (government led)
and demand-side (civil society led) social
accountability interventions improve rural
service delivery?
Solomon
Islands
How can deconcentrated state capacity
via Community Officers strenthen local
governance and justice capabilities?
Burkina
Faso
Can community-based organizations be
motivated to use their social influence to
demand accountability from municipal
governments?
Contact: Vincenzo Di Maro, email: vdimaro@worldbank.org.
Domestic Resource Mobilization
Colombia How can small municipalities increase
property tax compliance and revenues?
Tanzania How can accountability systems be
strengthened to make revenue collection
easier? How can institutional capacity be
strengthened for improved urban service
delivery?
Contact: Michael Roscitt, email: mroscitt@worldbank.org.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR
COLLABORATION
ieGovern seeks to expand with partners both within the
World Bank Group, with external donors, academics,
and client countries to improve our understanding of
governance. There are a wide range of avenues for
collaboration to improve the evaluation portfolio and,
ultimately, governance operations:
• Push the knowledge frontier of research within civil
service reform, procurement, domestic resource
mobilization, justice, and decentralization
• Enhance the level of rigor of current impact evaluation
studies by providing technical expertise
• Support the development of the governance research
agenda by providing operational expertise
• Collaborate with teams that have access to large
scale programs and interventions
• Providing technical assistance to policymakers to
build capacity to conduct evaluative research and
increase understanding of programmatic impacts and
knowledge of ‘what works’
• Expand networks across operations, research, donor,
and government to improve projects, programs, and
policies