Arianna Legovini built and leads the Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) group of the World Bank, The purpose of this unit is to use research to improve development practice and policy outcomes. Since joining the Bank in 2004, she has worked to understand and develop the institutions (incentives and processes) required to engage researchers, operational staff and policymakers in improving the quality in the design and implementation of development projects. The idea was, first, to use problem-based research to generate useful data and evidence that would guide policy decisions and improve outcomes. Second, it was to leverage the billions of dollars in international assistance to test out solutions to development problems in specific contexts and help countries learn for themselves how to reach and expand their production frontiers. In 2004-2008, working with like-minded partners, the ideas were put in action with the creation of the Africa Impact Evaluation initiative and its programs in education, HIV, malaria, community development, agriculture and private sector. In 2009, she imported Africa-grown lessons, processes and programs into the global impact evaluation program. By 2013, with core funding from UK Aid, she designed i2i (impact evaluation to development impact) to support the expansion of the approach across many institutional partners and across under-evaluated sectors representing the majority of development aid, including infrastructure, fragility and conflict, public sector governance, and natural resource management sectors. i2i was critical in developing Bank-wide governance structures for this work and formalizing working relationships through an improved system of incentives. Arianna is currently responsible for a $145 million dollar research program, leveraging about $3billion in WB, DFID and other partners lending, in 60 countries across the globe.
