The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) is a unit within the World Bank Group. The head of that unit, the Director-General, Evaluation, reports directly to the Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors and not to Bank Group management.
Evaluation of World Bank projects began in 1970 when President Robert McNamara created an Operations Evaluation Unit in the bank's Programming and Budgeting Department. In 1973 the unit was renamed the Operations Evaluation Department, and thereafter gained increasing independence from bank management. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) established an evaluation unit in 1984, and in 1995 the unit increased its independence under a new name, the Operations Evaluation Group. The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) created an evaluation office in 2002. In July 2006 the Board of the Bank Group integrated the independent evaluation functions of the World Bank, IFC, and MIGA into a single unit, the Independent Evaluation Group.
IEG supports the World Bank Group’s mission to reduce poverty by researching the extent to which World Bank projects, IFC investments, and MIGA guarantees achieve their intended results. IEG assesses whether those activities do the right things (are relevant) and whether they do them right (are effective). IEG evaluations seek to provide objective assessments to ensure that the Bank Group is accountable for achieving its development objectives.
IEG is a partner in the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET), the Regional Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results (CLEAR), and the Evaluation Cooperation Group (ECG).