Knowing (in) organisations: institutionalised evidence culture in the case of the World Bank

This paper will explore the evidence culture in one of the key global knowledge institutions – the World Bank. Framing itself as a ‘Knowledge Bank’, the World Bank is one of the key institutions providing data and evidence around poverty and inequalities, thus shaping the broader evidentiary standards and knowledge infrastructures around the world. It was especially evident in the case of poverty measurement whereby the change in the approach of the World Bank (from strictly monetary to monetary and multidimensional methods), helped to legitimise the multidimensional approach to poverty measurement worldwide. Drawing on a rich qualitative study of 50 semi-structured interviews with experts working on poverty knowledge as well as document analysis of the key reports and strategic documents, this paper will explore how the organisational culture of the World Bank mediates the production of evidence and expertise within the institution. The paper will explore the collectively formulated interpretative lenses that guide such formative questions as what counts as (good) evidence, how is it used in decision-making, and how to deal with uncertainty with data and evidence. By doing so, this paper will address two important gaps in the existing scholarship on evidence-based policymaking. First, it will provide an institutional lens to the production and use of evidence in policymaking, a lens that is significantly underdeveloped in the existing scholarship. Second, it will address the question of evolving evidentiary standards and learning within knowledge organisations. By exploring how institutions ‘change their minds’, the paper will provide a dynamic account of evolving politics of knowledge within organisations.