Management welcomes the IndependentEvaluation Group (IEG) report results and performance 2012of the World Bank group (RAP) and its overall positiveassessment of the World Bank group developmenteffectiveness. Management appreciates that the reportprovides a balanced picture of the World Bank groupactivities and recognizes that all three institutions havetaken important steps to strengthen results, monitoring, andreporting. The report is especially useful to management toprioritize the challenges in the context of the ongoingefforts to strengthen focus on results. Management isconcerned that the share of investment lending projectsrated moderately satisfactory or better appears to bedeclining, after a long period of improvements observedsince the mid-1990s.This reports includes five chapters: (i)the global development context ;(ii) world bank groupoperations: findings from evaluation work; (iii) enhancingthe bank group's effectiveness;(iv) strengtheninginstitutional results orientation;(v) conclusion: areas for attention