Book excerpt: This is the fifth annual review which explores long-term development effectiveness trends and analyses the choice of lending and non-lending instruments and activities to achieve World Bank development objectives. The 2001 review confirms a significant improvement in the outcomes of the Banks lending performance. It finds that selecting the right combination and sequence of activities for a particular objective can make the difference between success and failure, whether at individual project level, for country assistance programmes or for global, sectoral and thematic priorities. At each level, there is unexploited potential to maximise strategic selectivity, and this is especially important in countries with a poor policy framework or acute institutional development needs.