Do Different Implementing Partnerships Lead to Different Project Outcomes? Evidence from the World Bank Project-Level Evaluation

Since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the UN General Assembly in September 2015, interest in building effective development partnerships has grown in the both the international development discipline and practitioner community. Responding to this trend, many scholars and policy-makers highlight participatory development cooperation among state actors and non-state actors as a means of achieving comprehensive development goals. Despite this emphasis, however, only a handful of empirical studies have examined whether such partnerships have any meaningful relationship with project outcomes. This study aims to answer whether and to what extent different types of implementing partnerships (i.e., state or non-state implementing agencies) affect the outcome of development projects. Using the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group (WBIEG) project data with newly constructed implementing partnership variables, this study shows that implementing partnerships with host country governmental agencies tend to produce a less successful outcome compared to partnerships with non-state actors, and on average only attain moderate-level outcomes. Projects implemented by non-state actors, on the other hand, are likely to result in higher level project outcomes. The paper further tests these findings by analyzing the relationship between the number of state and non-state partners interacting in a project and the subsequent project outcome. This result suggests that an increased number of non-state actor participants leads to a better project outcome; this positive participatory effect, however, diminishes as the number of governmental implementers increases. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.