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p. 5 of 30 BACK | NEXT Executive Summary I. The Setting A. Introduction B. Quality of the Bank’s Portfolio of Projects C. Critical Attributes of Project Quality II. Key Variables Affecting Project Quality III. Assessment of Current Bank Practices and Areas for Improvement IV. Findings, Recommendations and Action Plan V. Implications and Monitoring Arrangements

Report of the Task Force on Improving Project Quality : I. The Setting

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C. Critical Attributes of Project Quality

14. It is important to underscore early in this report that, with the adoption of a Medium-Term Strategic Framework early in 1992, the Bank broadened the concept of project quality. While the traditional measures of quality such as adherence to the least-cost principle and the economic internal rate of return remain valid, the Bank's new operational priorities such as poverty reduction, human resource development, women-in-development and environmental rehabilitation require that the Bank place increased emphasis on these social and environmental dimensions as well, in assessing the quality of its projects.

15. A wholly satisfactory definition of project quality is not easy; not all measures of project quality are reducible to quantitative terms. In the final analysis, the overall development impact of a project is the ideal yardstick for judging its quality .This development impact can be expressed ex ante through the formulation o the hierarchy of objectives set out in a logical framework, and tied together by specified and timebound targets and assumptions. From a practical point of view, project quality may be defined as a set of attributes that capture the development impact of the project. These attributes are the project's estimated:

Although numerous elements combine to make up the overall development impact, the Task Force believes the above four measures of project quality can reasonably be considered to subsume those numerous elements. The relative importance of these four measures of project quality will vary between projects and upon the point in the project cycle at which project quality is being examined, be it at portfolio entry, during implementation, or thereafter. The Task Force has undertaken its examination of the quality of Bank-financed projects, and the processes and variables involved in their design and implementation, using as a backdrop the above four measures or attributes of project quality.

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