About Contact Development Reality
Sunday, March 15, 2026
The central finding IEG data going back to the 1960s shows that development outcomes today are no better — and in many cases worse — than they were six decades ago. The institutions have grown. The money has multiplied. The results have not improved.
Mother and child, Dar es Salaam
Why This Matters
These institutions are presently accountable to no one — and the outcomes show it.

IEG has been publishing project outcome data since the 1960s. A careful analysis of that data — using IEG’s own publicly released ratings — shows that the share of World Bank projects achieving satisfactory development outcomes has not improved over six decades. In several areas and regions, it has declined. The money has multiplied. The results have not.

This is not a crisis of resources or of intent. It is a crisis of incentives — inside institutions that are presently accountable to no one in any meaningful sense. This platform exists to name that problem clearly, and to make the case for what genuine reform would require.

Mother and child — Dar es Salaam — oil on canvas
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About MDB Reform

MDB Reform is written by Parminder Brar, a former World Bank Lead Financial Management Specialist and Lead Governance Specialist with field postings in Liberia (2003–2008), Ethiopia (2006–2015), Nigeria (2019–2022), and Tanzania. He was a member of the original PEFA indicator design team. The platform draws on primary sources and two decades of direct field experience to make the case that the institutions we have are capable of doing substantially better than they currently do.

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