Description:
This paper investigates the
effectiveness of post-conflict aid at the project level and
aims to identify post-conflict situations as a window of
opportunity for project success. The Independent Evaluation
Group dataset provides extensive information on the
characteristics of World Bank projects including an
independent rating of their success, supervision and
evaluation quality. The paper estimates the probability of
success of aid projects depending on the characteristics of
the intervention and looks for possible special patterns in
post civil war situations. The results suggest that the
probability of success of World Bank projects increases as
peace lasts. Supervision appears to be a crucial determinant
of the success of projects, especially during the first
years of peace. Although the results of the sector-level
analysis need to be taken with caution, the authors find
that projects in the transport sector and in the urban
development sector appear more successful in post-conflict
environments. On the contrary, education projects seem less
successful and therefore need to be highly supervised.
Projects in the private sector should wait as they face a
higher probability of failure in the first years of peace.