The World Bank's Procurement Framework : An Assessment of Aid Effectiveness

In 2016, the World Bank formally implemented a massive reform of the guidance it applies to procurements conducted under World Bank-financed projects. Because of the prominent role that the World Bank plays in shaping procurement policy, the Bank’s procurement reforms have had a profound impact on procurement in many countries around the world. This piece, a draft chapter in the forthcoming Public Procurement and Aid Effectiveness: A Roadmap Under Construction (Annamaria La Chimia & Peter Trepte, eds., Hart Publishing 2018), reviews the World Bank's Procurement Framework, including its approaches to procurement methods, bid challenges (complaints), country-system procurement, capacity-building and oversight. The piece assesses the Bank's reforms against international benchmarks for aid effectiveness, and concludes that the World Bank's Procurement Framework is an important step forward, but not an end point for procurement reform