# _3.2.1 Organizational Change & Management of Research_

In the fall of 1972, the Bank underwent a major reorganization. It created a new administrative structure for the Bank, dividing operations into 15 areas of specialization. Most sectoral issues related to the 15 areas of specialization were the responsibility of the Central Projects Staff (CPS), while most broad questions of development policy were to be addressed by the Development Policy Staff (DPS), known as the “Economics Department,” which was given responsibility for macroeconomic research. A senior vice presidency of operations was created with five regional vice presidents and a vice president for project staff. Vice presidencies were also created for Development Policy; Finance; Organization Planning and Personnel Management; and General Counsel. Hollis Chenery became the first Vice President for Development Policy.<sup>12</sup> A Research Committee was established in April 1971 to advise the President in shaping the Bank’s research program (following a comprehensive review of the Bank’s research program by Bela Balassa). The 15 sectoral operational units and other divisions of the Bank were to submit research priorities annually to the Research Committee. A separate budget for research was introduced in the Bank in FY72. It was described as the External Research Budget and later became known as the Research Support Budget.

The External Research Budget was managed by a Research Adviser (later called Administrator), assisted by the Secretary to the Research Committee, from the Office of the Vice President, Development Policy.13 The first annual report on research sent to the Board was issued in 1973 (World Bank 1973). This report, which for the first time identifies the four objectives of the Bank’s research program, informs about the External Research Budget.

Thus, during the 1972-82 period, the Bank’s Research Committee served as an advisory panel to Hollis Chenery, who, as Vice President for Development Policy, directed the Bank’s economic research. Substantial authority rested with Mr. Chenery, who worked closely with then President Robert McNamara to shape the Bank’s research program.

One of the most important forces driving research during the 1970s was the institutional mandate, outlined in Mr. McNamara’s 1973 Nairobi address, to reduce absolute poverty worldwide. This Bankwide goal pressured the Research Committee to promote research projects aimed at improving understanding of the causes of poverty and the search for policy options for poverty reduction.

> 12 A year before this reorganization, in 1971, the Central Economics Staff, reporting to Hollis Chenery, had been reorganized into three units: the Economics Department (with David Henderson as Director, and Alexander Stevenson as Deputy Director); the Economic Program Department; and the Development Research Center. The new Economic Program Department was to support and review the area departments’ country economic analyses and programs, and to advise on the policy issues that emerge from them. The department encompassed five divisions: Domestic Finance, Socio-Economic Data, International Finance, Program Review, and the Comparative Analysis and Projections Division. Benjamin King was appointed as Senior Adviser to the Economic Program Department. The Development Research Center (formerly the Basic Research Center) was to undertake economic research closely linked to Bank Group activities, and to coordinate with the work of other research organizations in the field of development outside the Bank.  Louis Goreux continued as Director of the Center.

> 13   Operational Manual 1.50 of August 1974.

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