Date: 2025-08-22 Page is: DBtxt003.php L0700-TPB-c2003-Development-Impact
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE
THE WORLD BANK PROJECT CYCLE
TPB thinking circa 2003 ... a viewpoint from 20+ years of work in the field
THE WORLD BANK PROJECT CYCLE
TPB thinking circa 2003 ... a viewpoint from 20+ years of work in the field
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
Most development banks use something like the World Bank project cycle for the projects they finance. Experience over many years suggest that the project cycle has substantial negative economic impact that are ignored in typical project analysis ... specifically the multiplier effect as a project winds down does lasting economic damage that may or may not be justified based on the overall project benefits.
Peter Burgess
Background
I did consulting assignments for the World Bank starting in 1978 and going on through the late 1990s. I had a lot of opportunity to learn a lot about the World Bank and their modus-operandi but had little influence on how they operated and the decisions they made.
Early on, when I first did work for the Bank, most of the Bank experts were experienced professionals, most of whom had done years of work on the ground in developing countries. Typically, they had worked as 'colonial officers' for the governments of the old colonial powers and knew a lot about the realities of the developing world. They were older, and would soon retrire.
At this time in the late 1970s, Robert MacNamara was the President of the World Bank and also very experienced as a senior analyst (albeit very young) during World War II, then later as President of the Ford Car Company, then US Secretary of Defense in the Johnson Administration. His credentials were outstanding ... but there was a serious weakness.
Peter Burgess