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Independent practitioner analysis on accountability in development finance. Grounded in evaluation data. Written for the people who use the institutions — and the people who should be holding them to account.

⛵ Kofi & the Six Ships — MDB Results Through a Child’s Eyes Day 0 to Day 7

OverviewKofi & the Six Ships — Series Landing Page

Day 0The Boy Who Thought the Bank Was a Cruise Ship — Introduction to the Series

Day 1The Cruise Ship — World Bank

NoteWho Is Minding the Ship? The Board That Approves Everything

Day 2The Two Battleships — IMF (Five Parts)

2.1The Ship That Does Not Keep Score

2.2Nigeria $3.4bn RFI — The Evaluation That Could Not Name It

2.3The Cold War Across 19th Street

2.4AFRITAC — The Homework It Does Do

2.5Europe’s Chair

Day 3The Palace Casino — IFC

NoteIFC in Fragile States: 11% Satisfactory and the Additionality Problem

Day 4The Dhow — African Development Bank

NoteAfDB: The 94% Problem

Day 5The Atakebune — Asian Development Bank

NoteADB: Best Evaluation Architecture, 12-Point Gap

Day 6The Carnival Ship — Inter-American Development Bank

NoteIDB: 81% vs 53% — The 28-Point Divergence

Day 7The Full Picture — Six Ships. One Ocean.

🇳🇬 Kofi in Nigeria — Benin City, Edo State, Niger Delta 10 sessions · 6 live, 4 coming

Day 1Kofi and His Mother Land in Benin City

IDARethinking the IDA Private Sector Window — From Internal Allocation to Competitive Deployment

Day 2The Palace of the Oba

Day 3Kofi & SEEFOR — State Employment and Expenditure for Results

Day 4Kofi & Kobo — How Do You Monitor 4,200 Sub-Projects?

Day 5Kofi & The Contractor

Day 6Kofi & The Photographer — The Kidnapping

▶ PodListen: Scratch, Toju & Parminder (Spotify)

PDFThe Judge’s Story — November 2019

Day 7What Happens When Something Goes Wrong — INT, Fiduciary, Accountability

Day 8Where Did the Other $78.4 Million Go? — Trust Funds and EU Accountability

Day 9Who Is Auditing the Auditors? — PEFA, Country Systems, SAI Capacity

Day 10The Last Morning in Benin City

⚖ The Richmond Reckoning — Tanzania, Parliament, and the Cost of Accountability Essay · 2026

EssayThe Richmond Reckoning — What Samuel Sitta and Harrison Mwakyembe Taught Africa About Power

PDFDownload Full Essay (PDF) — 47 Minutes, 8 Chapters, Two Annexes

🌎 Country Case Studies — Does the World Bank Learn from Failures? Parts 1–8 · 2024–2026

Part 1Nigeria Water — 34 Years. $1.8bn. 0.4% Satisfactory. One Household.

Part 2Angola DPF — 24 Years. $2.2bn. Zero Satisfactory. The Same Lesson, Three Times.

Part 3South Africa Eskom — $9.1bn. Rated MU. Nine Consecutive Unsatisfactory ISRs.

Part 4Ghana FCI — The Jobs Machine That Does Not Create Jobs. $615M. 0% Satisfactory.

Part 5DRC: The Portfolio That Does Not Deliver — 49 Projects. $6.7bn. 6.1% Satisfactory.

Part 6DRC: Inga — The Dam That Does Not Generate. 40 Years. SNEL Bankrupt.

Part 7The Rwanda Model — What the IEG Data Actually Shows.

Part 8The Somalia Exception — Fragile State, Exceptional Results.

🎮 The Zero Club — Sectors Where No Country Achieved Satisfactory Outcomes Parts 9–13 COMPLETE

Part 9MTI — 14 Countries. 99 Projects. $10.4bn. 0% Satisfactory.

Part 10Health — 14 Countries. 55 Projects. $3.0bn. 0% Satisfactory.

PDFDownload Zero Club Health (PDF)

Part 11Transport — The Foundation That Has Never Held.

Part 12Education — 10 Countries. 33 Projects. $2.5bn. 0% Satisfactory.

PDFDownload Zero Club Education (PDF)

Part 13Synthesis — 43 Zero Club Countries. The Cross-Sector Pattern.

📊 Quality, Disbursement & Ratings Architecture Parts 14–17 · June 2026

Part 14Quality at Entry in IDA — When Design Is Weak, 5.4% of Projects Succeed.

Part 15The IDA Disbursement Disconnect — $158bn. $104bn Below S+. 0% ERR Since 2015.

Part 16The IBRD Disbursement Disconnect — $554bn. $257bn Below S+. 0% ERR Since 2020.

Part 17AAA Credit. Unrated Development Effectiveness. — The Ratings Architecture.

⚡ Nigeria Power Sector — How Not to Do PPPs in Africa’s Largest Economy Country Deep Dive · 2026

Deep DiveNigeria Power Sector — How Not to Do PPPs: NEGIP & PSGP. $900M. Structural Conflict of Interest.

⚖ IFC Accountability — Two Tracks 9 papers · July 2026 SERIES COMPLETE

The IFC Accountability Series — Three Papers for the IDA22 Debate

Paper 1The Other AAA — IFC’s Credit Rating Architecture and What It Does Not Measure

PDFDownload Full Paper — 26 pages, six peer profiles, sovereign subsidy spectrum

Paper 2The Broken Bargain — IDA Delivered the Funding. IFC Did Not Deliver the Promised Expansion.

PDFDownload Full Paper — 15 pages, year-by-year transfer table, six benefits documented

Paper 3IFC at a Crossroads — Business Model, Governance, and the Leadership Question

PDFDownload Full Paper — 15 pages, five structural layers, seven reforms, MD performance chart

IFC Governance — Standalone Papers

PublishedWhen Accountability Becomes Optional — The IFC Board, the CAO, and the Precedent Set in Cambodia

PDFDownload Full Paper

PublishedThe Immunity Paradox — How IFC Cannot Be Sovereign and Commercial Simultaneously

PDFDownload Full Analytical Note

PublishedWho Is Minding the Ship? — The Board That Approves Everything

PublishedThe Architecture Is the Problem — Reconciling Sovereign and Commercial Mandates in the World Bank Group

PDFDownload Full Paper with Six Annexes

PublishedIFC in Fragile States — 11% Mostly Successful and the Additionality Problem

PublishedThe World Bank Inspection Panel at Thirty-Three — Measuring Accountability Failure

🌡 Climate & Governance — Who Controls the World Bank? 2 papers · July 2026 NEW

NewIDA21, Climate, and Who Controls the World Bank — Board Politics, Governance Failure, and the IDA21 Commitment

PDFDownload Full Paper — 14 pages, three-president pattern, keyword evidence, Board record

ComingWas the World Bank Climate Target Just Another Hoop for Project Teams to Jump Through? — How the CCAP Changed the Operating Framework

📄 Follow the Money — World Bank Procurement: Who Captures the Contracts? 2 papers · June 2026 NEW

Paper 1Follow the Money: $32.5 Billion of World Bank-Financed Contracts in Africa — Who Captures Them and Where the Money Goes

PDFDownload Africa Procurement Paper (PDF)

Paper 2Follow the Money: $125.3 Billion of World Bank Contracts — 280,959 Awards, Eight Regions, Six Fiscal Years

PDFDownload Global Procurement Paper (PDF)

🎬 Sector Performance Records — Spring Meetings 2026 20 pieces · April 2026

SynthesisZero Accountability — Eleven Findings from the Spring Meetings

TransportThe Transport Record — 4% S+ by Commitment. $11.2bn. 96% Below Standard.

PDFDownload Transport Paper

EnergyThe Energy Record — Mission 300. Mission Impossible. 15% S+. $21.5bn.

PDFDownload Energy Paper

WaterThe Water Record — Water Forward. Delivery Backward. 25% S+. $5.1bn.

PDFDownload Water Paper

HealthThe Health Record — Health Works Without Accountability. 29% S+. $8.4bn.

PDFDownload Health Paper

EducationThe Education Record — Human Capital Without Human Results. 30% S+. $12.9bn.

PDFDownload Education Paper

FCIThe FCI Record — The Jobs Machine That Does Not Create Jobs. 36% S+. $4.4bn.

PDFDownload FCI Paper

AgricultureThe Agriculture Record — Scale Without Transformation. 38% S+. $8.0bn.

PDFDownload Agriculture Paper

ASAThe Knowledge Bank — $1bn in ASA. No Evaluative Framework.

PDFDownload ASA Paper

IDAIDA at 65: $117 Billion Below Satisfactory. The Case for a Challenge Fund.

PDFDownload IDA Paper

✉ Spring Meetings 2026 — Bollywood, Hollywood & the Open Letters Review · 6 Open Letters · April 2026

ReviewThe Spring Meetings: Bollywood and Hollywood

Day 1Open Letter to the IMF

Day 2Open Letter on the IEO

Day 3Open Letter to IFC, MIGA, IBRD — Blended Finance

Day 4Open Letter to the World Bank President — Where Are the Jobs?

Day 5Open Letter to the Boards of the WB and IMF

Day 6Open Letter to the Governors

⚠ FCV Strategy — The Delivery Record in Fragile States 6 papers + 2026 update

OverviewFCV Strategy Series — Landing Page

Paper 1The Strategy Is Right. The Delivery Platform Is Broken.

Paper 2$117.0 Billion Below Standard: The IDA Delivery Record

Paper 3Four Root Causes: Why the Bank Keeps Underperforming

Paper 4IFC in Fragile States: 11 Percent Satisfactory

NoteIFC in Fragile States — Croupiers in Washington, Tables in Kinshasa (Also: Kofi Day 3)

Paper 5IDA21: What It Gets Right and What It Doesn’t Fix

Paper 6Eight Recommendations in Priority Order

FullDownload Full 130-Page Submission (PDF)

20262026 FCV Strategy Comment — Updated Submission

⚖ IDA Reform, Private Sector & Lending Instruments 6 papers

IDAIDA at 65: $117 Billion Below Satisfactory — The Delivery Record and Challenge Fund

PSWRethinking the IDA Private Sector Window: From Internal Allocation to Competitive Deployment

AlsoCross-referenced in Kofi in Nigeria — Day 1: Benin City

DPFPolicy Without Performance: Isomorphic Mimicry and the DPO Incentive Trap

AnnexPaper Triggers by Global Practice — Companion Annex

PforRDesigned to Fail: The SOML PforR Case Study (Nigeria P146583)

BoardWho Is Minding the Ship? The Board That Approves Everything

🏛 Governance & Institutional Architecture 2 papers

GameWhy the System Does Not Learn: A Game Theory Analysis of the World Bank’s Institutional Equilibrium

MTIInstitutional Power Architecture and Portfolio Distortion at the World Bank

🛡 MIGA — The Guarantor That Cannot Verify Its Own Results 2 notes · May 2026

RecordThe MIGA Record — The Guarantor That Cannot Verify. Eight Issues for the Board.

PDFDownload Institutional Note

AfricaMIGA in Africa — 459 Projects. $36 Billion. 20% of Exposure. Africa’s Share Halved.

PDFDownload Africa Note

📈 PEFA & Public Financial Management 2 papers · 2026

PEFAPEFA & Sub-Saharan Africa — 46 Assessments, 32 Countries: The Basics Are Not Being Done

PEFAPEFA at the Crossroads — Service Delivery, Core Controls, and the Cost of Losing the Thread

AlsoIsomorphic Mimicry and AFRITAC — 20 Years of Capacity Building. The Score Has Not Moved.

🛡 The IMF Papers — Analytical Catalogue (Day 2) Day 2 · Five Papers & Notes

OverviewThe Two Battleships — IMF Overview

Note 1The Ship That Does Not Keep Score — Zero Project Ratings in 149 Countries

NoteIMF Ratings & Transparency

Note 2Nigeria $3.4bn RFI — The Evaluation That Could Not Name It

NoteRushing to Disburse: Africa, IMF & COVID

Note 3The Cold War Across 19th Street — IMF–World Bank Mandate Duplication

NoteParallel Bureaucracies, Wasted Billions

Note 4AFRITAC: The Homework It Does Do — And Why the Score Has Not Moved

NoteIsomorphic Mimicry and AFRITAC: An Independent Assessment 2002–2026

Note 5Europe’s Chair — Who Sits at the Table, Who Decides, and What It Would Take to Change It

NoteEurope’s Chair — Analytical Note

🌎 The Regional Development Bank Papers — Analytical Catalogue (Days 4–6) Days 4, 5 & 6 · AfDB, ADB, IDB

AfDBThe Dhow — African Development Bank: The 94% Problem

NoteAfDB: The 94% Problem — Five Named Cases and a Validation Architecture That Cannot Correct Itself

ADBThe Atakebune — Asian Development Bank: Best Evaluation Architecture, 12-Point Gap

NoteADB: Ownership, Ratings and Governance Standards

IDBThe Carnival Ship — Inter-American Development Bank: 81% vs 53% — Sixteen Years of the DEF

NoteIDB: Results and the Music — The 28-Point Management–OVE Divergence

🔎 External Critiques & Institutional Commentary 2 papers · 2026

NewODI Global 2026–2031: Evidence Without Accountability — A Critique

NewODI Report on Reforming MDBs — Commentary

📊 Data — Open Datasets Downloadable

IEGIEG Master Database March 2026 — 10,542 deduplicated rated projects

IEGIEG Full Database 1973–2026 — 12,434 projects

DPADDPAD Prior Actions Database — 11,628 actions

PEFAPEFA SSA Dataset — 46 countries