Using Training to Build Capacity: An Evalution of the World Bank's Project-Based and WBI Training (Independent Evaluation Group Studies)

The World Bank finances about US$720 million in training every year, through both its lending projects and its in-house World Bank Institute (WBI). The evaluation found that while most of the training reviewed resulted in demonstrable participant learning, this learning frequently did not lead to real change in participants' workplace performance. Poor training outcomes most often resulted from training content that wasn't relevant to the needs and goals of the target institutions, or from the trainees' lack of incentives or resources to apply learning in their workplaces. These findings highlight how important it is for training to be embedded in broader capacity-building programs that identify and address organizational and institutional capacity constraints alongside human ones.