February 23, 2004—When development projects promote social change along with addressing economic issues, more people are lifted out of poverty and project outcomes themselves are better, according to a new World Bank draft report.
 | Steen Lau Jorgensen, Sector Director |
The draft report, Social Development in World Bank Operations: Results and Way Forward, says that helping countries foster inclusive and cohesive societies with accountable institutions makes development programs more effective and sustainable. - Inclusive societies give all citizens equal access to opportunities. They encourage all individuals and groups to participate in development activities.
- Cohesive societies work together to address common needs, overcome constraints, and consider diverse interests. They resolve differences in a civil, non-confrontational way that promotes peace and security.
- Accountable institutions are transparent, take responsibility for their actions, and respond to people’s needs in an effective, efficient, and fair way. Accountability is the obligation of all of those who can exercise political, economic, or other forms of power.
These three social development strategic priorities were laid out based on a study by the independent Operations Evaluation Department (OED) of the World Bank after it analyzed 4,000 Bank projects during the last 30 years. The Committee of Development Effectiveness (CODE) of the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank reviewed these three principles. Over the next six to eight months, different stakeholders will discuss these principles and their application in development in a series of debates and roundtables in developing countries. "This paper gives us clear evidence that when programs and projects include social dimensions at the outset, a real difference can be made in terms of lifting people from poverty and bridging the social gap," said Ian Johnson, World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development. Social development is a "precondition to sustained economic growth. The trickle-down effect does not always produce a positive social impact. On the contrary, in many developing countries, the effect has been that social differences have widened," Johnson added. Promoting social development requires understanding differences among and within societies—what different perspectives and constraints people have. This means taking into account local contexts, value systems, and culture, and making them central to poverty reduction efforts. Recognizing how social settings affect slum dwellers in Calcutta, villagers in Bosnia, or people in Brazilian rainforests, for example, is necessary to understand what makes and keeps these people poor. Knowing their perspectives is critical to helping them plan appropriate and sustainable development. The World Bank increased its attention to social issues during the 90’s. It built up a cadre of social development staff and introduced internal processes to move the social agenda forward in Bank financed operations. But "the Bank needs to do more to convince its borrowers, and even some of its own staff, of the potential of social development," claims the OED report. "We took into account the recommendations from the evaluation report when drafting the strategic priorities," said Steen Jorgensen, Director of Social Development for the World Bank. "However, the new document on strategic priorities is not prescriptive. It reflects a set of core principles that can be customized to the different regional realities. Now it is time to discuss with governments, civil society, business communities, trade unions, and all relevant players how to apply these principles in practical work, and what role the World Bank should play in helping countries promote these principles." The majority of citizens in developing countries see a distressed world troubled by poverty, social imbalance, distrust, terror, and lack of confidence in governance systems and structures, according to recent public opinion surveys Globe Scan, Gallup, Princeton, 2003/04. "A link between poverty and inequality, and the high correlation between race, gender, youth, and poverty is evident in much of the world," according to the OED report. In some countries in Latin America, for example, the income of the wealthiest 20 percent of households is 30 times greater than the poorest 20 percent of households. In East Asia, more than 700 million people in the region live on less than $2 a day. "The strategic priorities focus on these issues," Jorgensen explained, while cautioning about setting expectations out of context. "The Bank is only one player. We will work together with all partners at the global and national levels to make a real difference in correcting social imbalances in poor countries." The new approach will expand the attention to social development in Bank-supported investment projects, policy dialogue with governments, and policy-based lending. It proposes to support networks of social scientists in developing countries and a series of actions to improve the capacity of governments as well as civil society organizations in order to implement the new approach. Click here for the Operations Evaluation Department report http://www.worldbank.org/oed/socialdevelopment/ Click here for the draft Strategic Priorities Paper Social Development in World Bank Operations: Results and a Way Forward |
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