to reduce the likelihood of success, perhaps due to the intricate political difficulties involved in enacting such reforms. However, the paper concludes by noting that increases in leadership and coordination from the Bank at the project level generally have a positive effect on outcome. In a recent book chapter, Enyinda (2017) assesses the role of quantitative risk analysis on project management, examining the ways in which ex-ante risk analysis can mitigate poor outcome ratings on completion.

Region- and sector-specific works related to project success are too numerous to cite here with any degree of meaningful exhaustiveness. That being said, several works with a specific eye to issues that may be seen as delivery challenges can be highlighted here. Diallo and Thuillier’s (2004) examination of success factors in African projects presents an insightful analysis of the challenges posed to project success in Africa. Vawda et al. (2003) test the performance of education projects that have been subjected to economic analysis at the time of appraisal, showing a strong link between the project outcome and cost-benefit analysis. This suggests that project design is a strong indicator of ultimate performance. At a regional level, Blanc et al. (2016) use data from World Bank projects in the East Asia and Pacific regions to model the importance of project supervision, implementation progress, and the achievement of development objectives during project supervision. Similarly, Noorbakhsh and Paloni (2007) provide a novel take on the lessons from structural adjustment programs and the role of selectivity in Africa. Along more prescriptive lines, Ika (2012) offers a broad assessment of the general factors that may be leading to project failure on the continent, concluding with a list of prescriptions for improving under-performing projects.

In more sector-specific assessments of project ratings, Vickland and Nieuwenhuijs (2005) provide an interesting take on the primary factors affecting the modernization of public financial management information systems in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Chauvet, Collier, and Duponchel (2010) analyze the elements that affect aid project success in post-conflict areas more generally. Finally, several recent works look at the conditions that structure the ultimate effectiveness of environmental (Buntaine and Parks, 2013), water (Kfouri, 2016), and education programs (Lee, 2016) financed by the Bank. Notably, such works only take cursory steps towards creating a cross-cutting and generalizable theory of project failure. Most sector-specific studies take few steps towards assessing cross-cutting cleavages that can either positively or negatively impact a project’s overall performance.

Among the various substantive evaluations of World Bank implementation success, the importance of data and monitoring is given particular note, as seen in Golini, Kalchschmidt, and Landoni’s (2015) examination of project management practices and Raimondo’s (2016) analysis of the role of proper supervision on World Bank project performance. Chauvet, Collier, and Foster (2017) employ a useful principal-agent framework in order to examine the role of delegation and observation of agent efforts on project success. Lastly, recent work has examined new approaches to project management, notably from a knowledge-based approach (Todorovic et al., 2015) and transformational leadership (Aga, Noorderhaven, and Vallejo, 2016; Adams and van Tran, 2017). While focusing on a specific challenge to successful project delivery (in this case, the role of project management and supervision), this literature only takes a somewhat cursory approach to examining the role of leadership relative to other indices that may affect project outcomes in parallel.

A great deal of attention has also been paid to how project management, supervision, and leadership can have positive effects on the outcome of aid disbursement initiatives.<sup>4</sup> Key among these works

> 4For a general appraisal of the literature on project management, see: Ika, Lavagnon A. “Project success as a topic in project management journals.” Project Management Journal 40.4 (2009): 6-19

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