Discussion Papers - Social Funds

2008	2007	2006
2005	2003	2002
2001	2000	1999
1998

2011

Results Readiness in Social Protection and Labor Operations: Technical Guidance Notes for Social Funds Task Teams (499kb pdf)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 1104; Publication Date: 02/11
by Julie Van Domelen

The Results Readiness Review assessed progress to date on results-based management in the Social Protection & Labor (SP&L) portfolio and generated operationally relevant knowledge on how to strengthen Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E).  Specifically, the Review took stock of the status and quality of M&E in the SP&L portfolio, including both investment and policy-based lending.  The Review identified trends, strengths and weaknesses, and good practice M&E approaches and indicators to incorporate a better results focus in project design and implementation.  This related Note provides guidance for World Bank Task Teams working in the area of Social Funds.

2008

Community-based Risk Management Arrangements: An Overview and Implications for Social Fund Programs (469kb pdf)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0830; Publication Date: 10/08
by Ruchira Bhattamishra and Christopher B. Barrett

Risk and its consequences pose a formidable threat to poverty reduction efforts.  This study reviews a plethora of community-based risk management arrangements across the developing world.  These types of arrangements are garnering greater interest in light of the growing recognition of the relative prominence of household- or individual-specific idiosyncratic risk as well as the increasing shift towards community-based development funding.  The study discusses potential advantages (such as targeting, cost and informational) and disadvantages (such as exclusion and inability to manage correlated risk) of these arrangements, and their implications for the design of innovative social fund programs.

Social Funds as an Instrument of Social Protection: An Analysis of Lending Trends - FY2000-2007 (310kb pdf)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0809; Publication Date: 07/08
by Samantha de Silva and June-wei Sum

This review of World Bank lending for social funds covers fiscal years 2000 to 2007, and comes twenty years after the establishment of the first World Bank-funded social fund in Bolivia (1987).  The review’s objective is to assess the evolution of the social funds portfolio, with a specific focus on the fiscal years 2000 to 2007, and the portfolio’s role in the implementation of the Social Protection Sector Strategy (SPSS).  Lending trends, the evolution of the social funds model, and future implications of the review’s major findings are also discussed.

Social fund/CDD programs have gained increasing attention for their capacity to support poor communities, especially in the context of scaling up efforts to end extreme poverty.  The main objective of this toolkit is to enhance program design to better serve the poor. The toolkit approach is designed to provide technical staff in the Bank and client Governments with the concepts, empirical evidence, noteworthy case studies of different approaches and the operational elements necessary to develop more comprehensive poverty and vulnerability targeting mechanisms.

The Macedonia Community Development Project: Empowerment through Targeting and Institution Building (317kb pdf)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0710; Publication Date: 05/07
by Caroline Mascarell

Community-driven development (CDD) has many advantages for sustainable local development that empowers the poor.  According to the Voices of the Poor study, poor people demand a development process driven by their communities. They want NGOs and governments to be accountable to them.  Experience has shown that CDD can make poverty reduction efforts more responsive to demand, enhance sustainability, and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of poverty reduction efforts.  The sustainability of CDD depends on an enabling environment, often in the context of government decentralization, usually requiring significant capacity building efforts to support the poor, communities, and local government.  CDD has also been promoted as a means to develop the local capacity that decentralization requires.  This paper illustrates how one CDD project in Macedonia has been able to meet these challenges by serving as a model project in the ECA Region for sustainable development at the local level and as a source of lessons for other projects in Macedonia and elsewhere.

Evaluating Social Fund Impact: A Toolkit for Task Teams and Social Fund Managers (362KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0611; Publication Date: 10/06
by Sarah Adam

In response to the growing demand for evidence of how social fund (and other CDD) projects achieve significant and measurable improvement in peoples lives, this toolkit aims to increase the number, expand the topical coverage and improve the quality of social fund/CDD impact evaluations.  Designed for task teams and managers of social fund and other CDD projects, as distinct from evaluation practitioners, the toolkit first defines impact evaluation and introduces related concepts and methodologies and then guides this audience through the process of planning, designing and implementing an impact evaluation.

Decentralized, participatory, and demand-based methods, such as those employed in Social Funds and CDD operations, can be highly beneficial as means of increasing access to basic services in poor communities, in accordance with local priorities, and as part of a strategy of community empowerment.  But to ensure the sustainability of the investments and the institutions supported by these approaches, they must also seek ways to strengthen linkages with public sector institutions and decentralization processes.  This report seeks to clarify these issues by offering a conceptual framework for thinking about how to link community-based empowerment with local public sector service provision. 

Who Has the Yam, and Who Has the Knife? Social Action Funds and Decentralization in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda (930KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0518; Publication Date:5/05
by N. Mungai Lenneiye

This publication seeks to illustrate and address the creative tension needed to ensure an equitable distribution of  power over the development process by examining how putting the yam (resources) and the knife (the Financing Agreement) in the hands of the central and district bureaucracies and  the communities respectively can contribute to democratic decentralization.  Three Social Action Funds (SAFs) in Africa are examined in this regard - in Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda.  The Community Sub-project Cycle (CPSC), an integral part of the SAFs, is analyzed to show how a demand-driven process with in-built mutual accountability can result in communities realizing their aspirations while remaining accountable to government, and vice versa.

Social Funds: A Review of Public Sector Management and Institutional Issues (1MB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0508; Publication Date:5/05
by Mukhmeet Bhatia

While acknowledging the role of Social Funds in making effective investments to meet community needs, this study focuses on another crucial dimension:  their impact on overall public sector management.  The key question addressed is the role of social funds in building institutional capacity for designing, implementing, and delivering economic and social services. The areas considered for analysis include autonomy, budgetary issues, accountability, political interference, the effects on decentralization, the long-term role of social funds, and exit strategies.  The study reveals that a clear vision of the role of social funds with respect to other public and private institutions can help in a program design that integrates public sector management and institutional issues into all stages of the project cycle.  More specifically, the study recommends that social funds should be designed to act as catalysts toward public sector reforms, by grafting their positive features and incentives onto government structures.

Community-Based Social Services: Practical Advice Based upon Lessons from Outside the World Bank (930KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0327; Publication Date: 12/03
by Dinah McLeod

The purpose of this paper is to gather information outside of the Bank, in both developed and developing countries, on design and delivery of community-based social service initiatives. While the field is sufficiently new that "best practice" may not yet be fully identifiable, there are many initiatives funded by other governments, NGOs, and donor agencies, which taken along with acknowledged good practice from the industrialized world, can help task managers with the design of community-based social service projects.

Gender and Social Funds: Challenges and Opportunities (146KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0309; Publication Date: 03/03
by Kathleen Kuehnast

This report examines the various challenges and opportunities of mainstreaming gender issues in social fund projects and offers five good practice examples of gender integration in social fund projects in Ethiopia, Honduras, Malawi, Moldova, and Romania. Each case study takes gender into consideration during the preparation and implementation stages and discusses good design practices and project results. In addition, the report offers a set of working guidelines on integrating gender in social fund projects or subprojects. Based on the good practice examples of the case studies, the Report presents recommendations for next steps for integrating gender concerns into social fund practices.

Social Fund Support of Microfinance: A Review of Implementation Experience (113KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0215; Publication Date: 07/02
by Alexandra Gross and Samantha de Silva

These case studies were developed in order to help Bank task team leaders and their client country counterparts design and support effective microfinance components within social funds. The case studies aim to highlight best practice as well challenges for designing and implementing a microfinance component within a multisectoral project.

Operating Instructions Included: A Review of Social Investment Fund Operations Manuals (193KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0110; Publication Date: 04/01
by Juliana Weissman

Social investment funds are being used in a growing number of countries to alleviate the impact of political, social and economic crises, cushion the impact of adjustment programs, generate employment and finance small-scale investments in poor communities. The social fund operations manuals promote transparency with respect to social fund organization and the administrative, financial and technical arrangements used by the fund to execute its program. This study reviews the operations manuals of fifteen social funds, notes variations in content and structure and discusses elements that are essential and those that are unique to some of the funds. It proposes a set of guidelines for addressing some of the core issues in the preparation of social fund operations manuals. The paper concludes with some recommendations for improving the quality and utility of the social fund operations manuals.

Guide for Task Teams on Procurement Procedures Used in Social Funds (186KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0106; Publication Date: 02/01
by Jorge A. Cavero Uriona
Also available in Español (198kb pdf) and Français (199kb pdf)

Since the creation of the first social fund 14 years ago in Bolivia, these funds have been developed in more than 40 countries around the world.  Over time they have diversified as well to serve as a very useful instrument for human development.  The recommendations in this study are based on an analysis of a sample of procurement audits/ex-post reviews of social funds worldwide.  The study provides recommendations for improving the procurement process based on these analyses.  In addition, the document provides a description of World Bank instruments in the procurement area. These descriptions can serve as a guide to Task Team Leaders throughout the procurement process. Finally, conclusions and recommendations are given to help improve the administration of procurement for Social funds.

Promoting Good Local Governance through Social Funds and Decentralization (379KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0022; Publication Date: 09/00
by Andrew Parker and Rodrigo Serrano

In recent years, the World Bank and other donors have increased their focus on local governance and are now supporting initiatives that allow local institutions to play a much greater role in the planning, design, implementation, and operation and maintenance of small-scale investment projects. This study examines the interaction between social funds and decentralization in seven countries at different stages of decentralization: Bolivia and Honduras (advanced decentralization), Peru and Zimbabwe (some decentralization) and Cambodia, Malawi and Zambia (little or no decentralization); and explored the relationship between social funds, decentralization and local governance.

Helping the Poor Manage Risk Better: The Role of Social Funds (108KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 9934; Publication Date: 12/99
by Steen Lau Jørgensen and Julie Van Domelen

Recent trends in trade, technology, and politics have created new opportunities for global welfare improvement, but have also increased risks. This challenge requires rethinking social protection and its instruments, particularly social funds. This paper reviews social funds and suggests future directions by using a "social risk management" framework to examine how social funds can help the poor manage risk better. Risk management covers risk reduction, risk mitigation, and risk coping. Analyzing social funds within the social risk management framework suggests that: they should be assessed as one of many components in countries' social risk management strategies; they should move from coping and mitigation to risk reduction; they should focus more on the medium term impact of projects; their targeting should focus on vulnerability and vulnerable groups; their "investment menus" should be expanded to include more risk reduction projects; and more emphasis should be given to participation and capacity building.

Coordinating Poverty Alleviation Programs with Regional and Local Governments:The Experience of the Chilean Social Fund (FOSIS) (73KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 9933; Publication Date: 12/99
by Jorge C. Barrientos

This paper reviews the Chilean experience in dealing with the issue of integration of local and regional governments into the poverty alleviation programs carried out through the Chilean social fund – FOSIS.  FOSIS was created in 1990 by the first democratically elected government that took office after 17 years of military rule. However, it was only in 1992 that local governments were elected after a long period of appointed officials and neglect of investments in economic and social infrastructure. Since its inception, FOSIS gave high priority to participatory approaches and capacity building of community organizations as the key mechanisms to enable the poor to improve their living conditions on a sustainable basis. This paper traces the evolution of FOSIS and analyzes its new strategy for allocating resources at the regional and local levels. The Chilean case presents a successful example of increasing integration of local governments with poverty programs designed and implemented by intermediaries (mostly NGOs) and/or directly by beneficiaries.

Beneficiary Assessment Manual for Social Funds (88KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 9930; Publication Date: 12/99
by Lawrence F. Salmen

Beneficiary assessment (BA) is a qualitative research tool used to improve the impact of development operations by gaining the views of intended beneficiaries regarding a planned or ongoing intervention.  This manual provides guidance for Bank and social fund staff on how to design and implement a Beneficiary Assessment of a social fund, including: understanding the context, setting objectives, funding, selecting institutions and field researchers, preparing terms of reference for BA implementation, sampling frames, preparing interview guides, methodology, institutional assessment, report preparation, and dissemination of findings. Sample terms of reference are provided.

Causalities Between Social Capital and Social Funds (102KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 9908; Publication Date: 03/99
by Jesper Kammersgaard

There is a growing consensus among development practitioners that participatory mechanisms are necessary in securing the success of development projects. Through the lens of social funds this paper looks at the concept social capital in order to explain why participation is crucial for development outcomes. Two hypotheses are stated regarding the causalities between social capital and project sustainability. On the background of a definition of social capital different operationalizations are reviewed in order to propose a methodological approach for testing the hypotheses.

Getting an Earful: A Review of Beneficiary Assessments of Social Funds (164KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 9816; Publication Date: 12/98
by Daniel Owen and Julie Van Domelen

Social investment funds account for a growing share of the Bank's portfolio in the social protection and human development areas. Given the demand-driven nature of these social funds, systematic feedback from beneficiaries is an essential evaluation tool.  This study reviews the experience to date with beneficiary assessments of social funds. The study is divided into two sections: (i) an evaluation of the use of beneficiary assessments as a monitoring and evaluation tool; and (ii) observations on social fund operations based on information from the end-users.  The paper concludes with recommendations for improving the quality of beneficiary assessments as well as social fund performance across countries.

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