Social Development at the World Bank

Social Development challenge

§         Equitable and sustainable development requires tailored responses to a country’s social context and the needs and priorities of poor people.

§         As the World Bank’s Social Development Strategy emphasizes, overcoming poverty is about more than getting economic policies right.  It is also about empowering people by creating more inclusive, cohesive, and accountable societies.

Inclusive institutions promote equal access to opportunities, enabling everyone to contribute to social and economic progress and share in its rewards.

Cohesive societies enable women and men to work together to address common needs, overcome constraints and consider diverse interests.

Accountable institutions are transparent and respond to the public interest in an effective, efficient and fair way.

Social Development response

§         The World Bank supports social development by listening to poor people and promoting their voices in the development process; understanding and addressing their needs, priorities and aspirations; and building formal and informal institutions.

§         We work with government, communities, civil society, and the private sector to help foster a state that is accessible, responsive and accountable to citizens.

§         Social Development’s key message to the development community for the last twenty years has been the need to ‘put people first’ in development processes. Social development includes the poor and excluded in the development process, and translates the complex relationships between societies, states and communities into operations.

§         Poor people’s own voices tell us that poverty is more than low income—it is also about vulnerability, exclusion and isolation, unaccountable institutions, and powerlessness.

§         Social Development at the World Bank managed an operational portfolio of $7.7 billion in FY07. Across the Bank, Social Development has a network of over 150 social scientists and economists.

Highlights of Social Development across the Bank

Social aspects of climate change

§         The international community now recognizes that climate change will affect poor people’s resources, social organization and institutions, and livelihoods – the social dimensions of climate change.  The Social Development Department is leading work on the social dimensions of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change, and the links between climate change and human security, conflict and migration. 

§         The operational agenda will support community and national level efforts to adapt to climate change and reward carbon fixing land-use practices.

Social dimensions of infrastructure

§         In the Bank, Social Development specialists work closely with infrastructure teams and focus on improving people’s access and promoting social inclusion; reducing political and social risks; enhancing governance and reducing corruption through voice and participation; sharing benefits through social safeguards; and improving the design of infrastructure operations in conflict affected and fragile states.

§         Social Safeguards aim to promote inclusion of the most vulnerable people and protect involuntarily displaced and indigenous peoples. 263 Bank projects currently affect indigenous peoples, and involuntary resettlement is a component of 325 Bank projects.

§         Social and political analysis focuses on diversity including gender; formal as well as informal institutions, such as tribal and caste structures; and participatory processes involving the poor and other stakeholders. It also addresses social and political risks.

Local Governance, participation, civic engagement

§         In recent years, the Bank has begun to address corruption, accountability and governance, focusing mainly on traditional public sector reforms—the supply-side of governance. Social Development has developed approaches that emphasize civic engagement—the demand-side of governance. The demand and supply side approaches are outlined in the Bank’s Governance and Anti-Corruption Implementation Plan, approved by the Board last week.

§         Social Development’s portfolio includes operations designed to bridge supply-side and demand-side accountability of local governments to improve service delivery to communities (for example, in South Asia, East Asia and East and Central Europe).

§         Community Driven Development (CDD) approaches can empower communities to plan, design and implement initiatives to improve their livelihoods. They also lead to more effective local service delivery because they strengthen citizens’ opportunities to hold local authorities to account.  CDD lending increased from about $325 million in FY96 to about $2.1 billion currently (approx 10% of total Bank lending).

Conflict Operations in the Sustainable Development Network

§         The approach to conflict operations in the Bank has evolved from a focus on physical reconstruction to conflict and development more broadly.  Social Development specialists support country teams and operational research on conflict. Such support may include an analysis of the socio-political context to understand how Bank operations may affect conflict dynamics, and to identify the opportunities operations can offer to promote more cohesive and peaceful societies. 35-40 Bank clients are conflict-affected, most among the poorest borrowers.