Overview

Community Driven Development is the exercise of community control over decisions and resources directed at poverty reduction and development. The aim of CDD is to promote security, opportunity, and empowerment for all community members through:

• strengthening of accountable, inclusive community groups;

• supporting broad-based participation by poor people in strategies and decisions which affect them;

• facilitating access to information and linkages to the market; and

• improving governance, institutions, and policies so that local and central governments and service providers, including NGOs and the private sector, become responsive to community initiative.

Why is CDD important for the World Bank's Portfolio?

The benefits of CDD for poverty reduction are that it can:

• Complement market and public sector activities – by filling a gap in poverty reduction efforts that market-driven operations and national public sector programs alone cannot cover, and by achieving immediate and lasting results at the grass-roots.

• Make poverty reduction services demand-responsive and enhance their sustainability – sustainability has been shown to be enhanced when communities control investment choices.

• Enhance efficiency and effectiveness of services – studies and practical experience suggest that CDD can improve effectiveness and efficiency of services in many sectors and contexts.

• Take poverty reduction to scale – when poor communities are trusted in their capacity to drive development, significant resources can be devolved simultaneously to very large numbers of community groups.

• Make development more inclusive of the interests of poor people and vulnerable groups – representative community groups can provide voice and empowerment to people who are typically excluded from the development process.

• Empower poor people, build social capital and increase poor people's voice in governance – by devolving resources directly to community-based organizations (CBOs), community-driven approaches empower poor men and women and enhances networks of social capital.