Assurance and Development Financing

Lesson 2 Assignments
Assurance and Development Financing
Reading Assignments
• Project Cycle Overview
• Project Cycle Details
Questions to Guide Readings
The World Bank has a Green Bond Fund; applicants for these funds provide a significant level of detail about their projects. The Project Cycle Overviewillustrates the stages of each project, and the Project Cycle Details explains each of those stages. Review these materials.
At the end of the Project Cycle Details site is the project evaluation reports section. Go to this listing. The first report listed (on March 23, 2014) is a report about opening a rural bank in Mexico. From the report’s summary, I can see the problem with the prior Mexican Rural Bank (attracting deposits with the promise of high and unsustainable interest rates, and a lackluster effort to collect on loans it issued). I can also see the World Bank’s independent evaluation of the new bank (it is considered successful) – along with rationale.
Choose ONE of the reports (there are 442 reports on the site at this writing) and:
1. Choose your report and register its name in the Choice of World Bank Report discussion area. Do not duplicate another student’s choice. First come, first served. This Discussion Area is only for reserving your report. See below for instructions on participating in this discussion.
2. Identify your report, provide me with a link to it and answer these questions in writing (to submit to the Lesson 2 Reading Answers Dropbox. The expected total length of these answers is 1-2 pages.
a. What was the problem the World Bank loan addressed – summarize it in your own words, don’t copy and paste from the report.
b. What is the status of the loan – has the project been deemed successful (and why), again in your own words.
c. What assurance information does the report indicate was gathered, again in your own words?

Discussion Assignment: Assurance at the World Bank
See above for selection of the topic for this discussion. The idea is for the members of the class to share different assurance examples from the World Bank website, and share ideas about the assurance behind those reports.
Do not duplicate the answers of another student if you want credit for your posting.
Please post your messages in the Lesson 2 Discussion – Assurance at the World Bank by the due dates listed in the course calendar. Note: There are multiple due dates for this assignment.
Share (Initial Post)
IMPORTANT: Place the NAME of the company you analyze in the SUBJECT LINE of your discussion thread. DO NOT duplicate a company chosen by another student. If you fail to choose a different company, you will not get any credit for this discussion.
Post four brief paragraphs containing the following information (please summarize your written answers, do not simply paste your lesson 2 written answers into this discussion. Ideally, each of these answers will be one or two sentences in length.
• What problem is being addressed by the funded project
• What is the independent evaluation of the outcomes of the project as indicated in the report you read?
• What assurance support or data seems to have been gathered to provide the basis for the report?