High five! How the World Bank Group is more focused on outcomes

The number five is often seen as a symbol of balance, progress, and transformation—much like the steady progress the World Bank Group has made since it set up an Outcomes Department five months ago. This new department seeks to elevate the way we measure our impact, strengthening our accountability for results. Just as five fingers help us build and create and the five senses allow us to experience the world around us, the department has worked to lay a strong foundation for the future. 

In these first few months, the Outcomes Department has reached five key milestones that contribute to the organization’s ongoing focus on measurable impact. From setting up a comprehensive data tracking system to fostering partnerships and improving reporting, each step has been part of our shared effort to build a results-driven path forward.

Here’s more on these milestones, the first steps in a larger journey ahead.

1. Implementing the World Bank Group Scorecard

In an increasingly complex and resource-constrained world, understanding the World Bank Group’s impact is more critical than ever. A challenging funding environment requires a sharp focus on results to ensure that our investments are tangibly improving lives. Building trust is also essential as countries face multiple intertwined crises, from unemployment and climate shocks to inequality. In this context, transparency and accountability are paramount. 

In response, we developed a new World Bank Group Scorecard, which is enhancing how we aim for, manage, and measure outcomes.  With 15 outcome areas and 22 indicators, it streamlines measurement and management, allowing us to track progress toward our vision of a world free of poverty on a livable planet. For instance, the Scorecard provides insights into how we have supported 381 million people in accessing quality health care, nutrition, and population services, with a goal of reaching more than 575 million. This publicly available data enables governments and stakeholders to understand the impact of World Bank Group-supported initiatives. Ultimately, this key tool is helping to ensure that every dollar of the $117 billion committed in our last fiscal year has a meaningful impact.

2. Setting clear and measurable targets

Managing for outcomes requires a mindset shift to prioritizing real change over simply delivering products. This is why we are increasingly using targets to drive meaningful action. Focusing on well-defined and measurable outcome targets aligned with the Scorecard helps create a sense of urgency and direction. Our targets also align institutional commitments with frontline operations. For example, our analysis showed that, at the current pace, it would take 30 years to close the gap in access to water. How can we step up our current efforts to accelerate outcomes for those that need it fast? By using data to track progress, we are identifying ways to close this gap more effectively. 

3. Building innovative systems to measure outcomes

We are investing in advanced data techniques to improve our ability to measure outcomes. By integrating multiple data sources and using real-time analytics, we can make more agile decisions and quickly adjust our strategies to maximize effectiveness. These innovations provide a clearer picture of what works, ensuring that our initiatives deliver the intended impact efficiently. For example, we are leveraging artificial intelligence to analyze text data from project documents and reports to assess how transformational our operations are for women. By identifying patterns and trends, we can intentionally refine our strategies to increase women’s economic empowerment. 

4. Strengthening partnerships for greater impact

We know that we cannot achieve our ambitious goals alone. By collaborating with governments, the private sector, civil society, and other development partners, we can leverage additional resources and expertise to drive sustainable solutions. Partnerships help scale successful initiatives and enable knowledge sharing. For instance, through "Mission 300" we are working with the African Development Bank to provide electricity access to 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. We also collaborate with partners to harmonize how we measure outcomes, minimizing the burden on clients, strengthening accountability, and avoiding double counting results. 

5. Creating more and better jobs

Ultimately, our focus on outcomes is about improving lives through economic opportunities. Achieving this requires a World Bank Group-wide effort to help countries build foundational infrastructure and human capital, reduce regulatory barriers, create a strong enabling environment for business, and support a thriving private sector to drive investments and job creation.  Our efforts to measure impact, set clear targets, and foster partnerships all contribute to expanding opportunities for more and better jobs. Whether through large-scale electrification projects, skills training programs or access to financial services, our goal is to enable more people to secure stable, well-paying jobs that can lift them out of poverty and drive sustainable development.

Five to thrive: Accelerating towards 2030

With just five years left to meet the 2030 global commitments, we don’t have time to waste. Like the power of five, we must now multiply our efforts to drive real impact. Fittingly, the World Bank’s lending capacity has grown five-fold since the 1990s, a testament to our ability to scale solutions and rise to the challenge. Five years may seem short, but with the right momentum, it can be the bridge between ambition and achievement. Now is the time to harness this strength, push boundaries, and turn commitments into lasting outcomes.