A Mokoro team, led by Stephen Lister, prepared an implementation completion report of the third phase of the Promoting Basic Services (PBS III) Project in Ethiopia, which represents the government’s perspective on the project.

The Promoting Basic Services (PBS) project has been at the centre of Ethiopia’s efforts to address poverty by expanding and improving basic service delivery. It originated in 2005 (then called Protecting Basic Services) and the PBS III phase (effective in 2012 and closing in 2019) had a scale of around USD 1 billion in support from the World Bank and other donors. The project aims to expand access and improve the quality of basic services (education, health, agriculture, water supply and sanitation and rural roads) by (i) funding block grants that ensure adequate staffing and operations, and by (ii) strengthening the capacity, transparency, accountability and financial management of sub-national governments.

Through a documentation review and key informant interviews, the team assessed the project against development objectives and the results framework, and also examined achievements of each project component. The review found this multi-partner project has been very effective, despite increased pressures on development partners to justify aid politically and to claim results specifically attributable to their inputs.

The World Bank Implementation Completion and Results Report is available on their website. This includes a synopsis of the report Mokoro prepared for the Ministry of Finance.