World Bank Writes 300 Reports A Year But 100 Are Never Read

World Bank puts out around 300 reports but their own analysis has shown that around 100 of these reports are not read at all.

World Bank provides financial and technical assistance to developing countries across the world. In doing so, the Bank produces a wealth of information, papers and documents aimed at helping reach policy solutions to problems.

According to a World Bank Paper titled ‘Which World Bank Reports Are Widely Read?” almost 31% policy reports were never downloaded. Between 2008-2012, there were 1611 documents published out of which 517 were never downloaded even once. And even when they were used, 87% policy reports were not cited. Nearly 49% of World Bank’s reports have the stated objective of informing the public or influencing the development community.

According to their analysis, the reports that are downloaded the most are the ones with emerging countries as a focus of study. Their most downloaded report is “Vietnam Development Report 2009: Capital Matters”.