The World Bank has a key role to play in supporting countries develop and sustain strong health systems. The World Bank's role in health was recently evaluated by the bank's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG). We took a close interest in the evaluation and participated actively in discussions of the group's findings at the bank's board.
The bank is committed to improving its performance in health. We believe that the bank's Health, Nutrition and Population Strategy, which was launched in 2007, sets the right direction and is already helping to address several of the weaknesses identified by IEG's evaluation. The bank recognises that it needs to improve performance and to ensure that it has the capacity it needs to play an effective role, especially in Africa.