Data and evidence are the foundation of development policy and effective program implementation, and countries need data to formulate policy and evaluate progress.

At the global level, the World Bank has a strong reputation in development data and has been highly effective in data production. It produces influential, widely used data and cross-country indicators that fill important niches, benchmark countries, and stimulate research and policy action.

The World Bank has also taken a prominent leadership role in global data partnerships so far. However, the World Bank needs to determine its future role carefully because the global partnership landscape is becoming more uncertain—as old partnerships phase out, the complementarity of new partnerships is unclear. This makes the World Bank’s future role especially pivotal because the sustainability of funding from global data partnerships at both the national level and for some global data efforts is at risk. Without sustained funding, past progress will be in jeopardy, as observed in some countries where data quality worsened when trust fund support ended.

Independent Evaluation Group Report