Oversight Note on the Performance Criteria for Allocating Concessional Resources

This note (RE-279) represents the Office of Evaluation and Oversight's preliminary review of the new performance-related allocation criteria used by the Bank. It is confined almost exclusively to a methodological review of the allocative criteria and to a comparative analysis of the approaches used elsewhere for the performance-based allocation of scarce resources. This report discusses the evolution of allocation criteria within the Bank's methodology for allocating concessional resources. The report also analyzes the distributional impact of the new performance-based methodology and compares the Bank's criteria with the most important alternative criteria used to allocate aid: those developed by the International Development Association (IDA), of the World Bank. In addition, a methodological discussion of the Bank's framework is presented along with conclusions and recommendations.