"World Bank support for boosting growth must capitalize on vital opportunities to increase employment and reduce the numbers of the poor," said the study made available yesterday.

Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) of the World Bank conducted the study titled "Annual Review of Development Effectiveness 2006: Getting Results", released in Washington DC on Thursday.

The Review said: "Economic growth has improved over the last five years, but more attention is needed to help poor people benefit from growth."

In the countries reviewed in the report, including Bangladesh, poverty reduction differed widely, as a result of the striking variations in growth as well as in income distribution outcomes.

"Stronger results can be derived by capitalizing on the synergies across sectors," IEG said. "Achieving results in one sector - better health, for example - often requires actions in different but related sectors."

In Bangladesh, it said, child mortality has been reduced - not just because of better health services - but also for better secondary schooling of the girls and rural electrification, which the Bank had supported.

IEG said the World Bank has helped many countries to get onto a growth path through improved economic management, but the growth strategies have not always helped enough to improve job opportunities and living conditions of the poor.

"Of special concern is the weak impact on poverty in rural areas, where poverty is concentrated in most countries."

In order to obtain better results, it said, there is the need to set more realistic and specific objectives in Bank assistance programmes.

Good development results also require competent domestic institutions that are accountable to their citizens, the study added.

"But across-the-board anti-corruption campaigns and comprehensive reform programmes have yielded disappointing results when they have not taken enough account of the political circumstances," noted Monika Huppi, lead author of the report.

IEG found three important areas where the bank can strengthen effectiveness in helping countries reduce poverty -- increased focus on the nature of growth, setting attainable objectives and a realistic assessment of the political economy of governance reforms.

"Broad growth trends are positive, but there is a long way to go in reducing the number of people living in poverty and the magnitude of their deprivation," said Vinod Thomas, IEG's director general.

"Discernable progress depends on actions to sustain growth, as well as to improve income distribution through better service delivery and more opportunities for the poor. The challenge is to see far more numbers of poor benefit from broad-based growth," he added.