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p. 1 of 8 BACK | NEXT I. Introduction II. Background Information III. Operational Assessment IV. Benefits and Costs V. Conclusions

A Review of North American Representative Office

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I. Introduction

1. The North American Representative Office (NARO) was opened in October 1995 in Washington, D. C. As was agreed by the Board of Directors¹ , this information paper reviews NARO's activities, relative to its approved Terms of Reference (TOR) during its first two years of operations (Appendix 1).

2. This information paper is based on the findings of a Working Group², constituted by the Vice President, Finance and Administration, which undertook a desk study of NARO's operations and interviewed staff from concerned Bank departments/offices and the directors representing Canada and the United States (US). The paper also draws upon the findings of a Working Group Mission that visited North America from 23 February to 6 March 1998 to meet with NARO staff and a cross-section of NARO's constituency (a listing of the interest groups consulted is provided in Appendix 2).

3. This information paper is structured in the following manner. Some background information on NARO's operations is first provided. As was agreed by the Board, NARO is then assessed on the basis of its:

• utility and operational effectiveness for the Bank;
• usefulness as viewed from the perspective of the major interest groups in Canada and the US; and
• ongoing effort to improve effectiveness and minimize costs.

Benefits and costs are then considered. The paper concludes with an overall assessment of NARO's performance and outlines initiatives that will be adopted to further improve NARO's utility and operational effectiveness.

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