Producing Knowledge for Development: Research at the World Bank (Global INSIGHTS‪)‬

Research is one of the important activities of the World Bank and an essential input to lending. To meet the challenges of development and poverty reduction, the Bank must combine the power of ideas and knowledge with finance. Generating knowledge about the impact of policies in specific contexts is essential to accelerating growth and achieving the UN's Millennium Development Goals in developing countries. Creating knowledge involves data production, analytical studies, global monitoring and projections, statistical capacity building, policy review, and advice. The "lending, learning, and knowledge" cycle has both an internal and an external dimension. Research findings are an essential input to Bank operations and lending. They are used in the Bank's advisory services, which include policy dialogue with governments, analytical reports (known in Bank jargon as economic and sector work), and technical assistance. In addition to research, development practitioners and policymakers need access to good-quality country-level and comparative data. This must be combined with high-quality global monitoring and consistent projections to enable policymakers to adjust development strategies to a rapidly changing external environment.