Arianna Legovini is the manager of Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) in the research department of the World Bank Group. Arianna has dedicated the last decade to develop a new institutional approach to closing the gap between operations and research to build knowledge on the mechanisms that explain policy success and to use experiments to improve the effectiveness of government policies. In this role Arianna leads the development and implementation of a large research agenda across critical development areas, stimulating strong demand from clients and leveraging significant support from donor countries. Several multi-country programs of impact evaluation with global outreach are currently active in thematic areas ranging from productive sectors, to sectors relevant to the climate change debate, to human development and gender, to governance, and fragility and conflict. These programs count with a couple of hundred separate pieces of analytical work.
Previously, Arianna established the Africa Impact Evaluation Initiative for the Africa region of the World Bank. She also developed the Africa Results Monitoring System, the first World Bank system to monitor Bank results. Before joining the World Bank, Arianna was acting chief of the Poverty Unit at the Inter-American Development Bank, and coordinator of the Network of Inequality and Poverty of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA). She conducted her PhD studies in economics at the University of Maryland and has several academic publications including journal articles and chapters in edited volumes.