World Bank Scorecard midterm review: More data, uncertain outcomes
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Article summary
The midterm review of the World Bank’s Corporate Scorecard – a set of 22 outcome- focused indicators to measure the Bank’s progress (see Observer Autumn 2024, Summer 2023) – is now underway. The review’s purpose is to assess whether the indicators that track performance against development outcomes are fit for purpose and to make necessary adjustments before the cycle concludes. The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) is conducting a parallel evaluation to feed into the process, flagging in its approach paper the risk that scorecards can become tools “for seeking legitimacy, rather than mechanisms for improving organisational effectiveness.”
Civil society organisations (CSOs) following the review report that the timeline remains opaque, with little clarity on when the review will conclude or how external inputs will be incorporated, calling into question whether the review will afford meaningful space for course correction (see Observer Autumn 2024).
US-based CSO Bank Information Center has identified gaps in the Scorecard’s disaggregation methodology, and amongst others, in the net greenhouse gas indicator, which excludes development policy financing and IFC trade finance from emission measurements. The jobs indicator – not part of the original 21 indicators – has also drawn criticism from the International Trade Union Confederation, with Evelyn Astor, its director of economic and social policies, noting for Devex in April that the metric fails to capture job quality: “If the average wages are poverty wages, then your indicator using average wages as a benchmark is useless.”
The new system discloses more data, but much of it remains difficult to interpret, raising questions about conflating volume with transparency. Whether these disclosure gaps translate into substantive indicator changes during the midterm review will test the Bank’s commitment to accountability over optics.
