In June, the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) released a study on World Bank experience in improving municipal management, covering the entire portfolio of 190 municipal development programmes (MDPs) during 1998-2008. Overall, the report finds that the MDPs led to better financial management, information systems and procurement procedures, but were weak on monitoring and evaluation, operations and maintenance, private finance for municipal services, and, most crucially, failed in most cases to integrate poverty alleviation into their objectives. The report concludes that “little evidence exists that stronger municipal management has benefited the poor.” Although the Bank’s management pointed to other urban projects which focus on the poor, the Bank board’s Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE) re-emphasised that the MDPs need to integrate a focus on poverty alleviation.