Social Development in the World

Bank From Vision to

Action

September 23d, 2005Steen Jorgensen

Director, SDV

What is social development and why it matters?

Social Development is about …empowering people …by transforming institutions to make them

more • Inclusive - Putting marginalized people at the

center of development• Cohesive - Strengthening community fabric

so that members can work together• Accountable - Developing ways for all people

to exercise voice and ensure transparency

Empirical evidence and operational experience says

…social development promotes better growth, better projects and better quality of life

An Example

In India, the Andhra Pradesh Rural Poverty Reduction Project improves livelihoods by empowering poor rural women. It has supported half a million self-help groups, covering 6.2 million people

World Bank’s strategic priorities for social development

Social Development (SD) Strategy has been approved by Board of Directors (2005)

…the plan involves investing both in assets of the poor as well as in more inclusive, cohesive and accountable institutions. But, HOW?

Strategic Priority 1: More macroIncrease attention to social development in the Bank’s policy dialogue

andpolicy based lending

Strategic Priority 2: Better projectsImprove project effectiveness by mainstreaming social development intoproject level processes and strengthening free-standing portfolio

Strategic Priority 3: Better groundingImprove research, capacity building and partnerships

Some benchmarks

Heading in the right direction• Quality of attention to SD issues in projects improved (85% of “good” quality up

from 75% four years ago)• Thematic portfolio managed increasing

Need to go further …• More CASs include SD principles• 80% of Policy-based lending rate satisfactory on participation• Up to 40 new country level social analyses• Quality at entry for projects on social an poverty considerations remain above

85%• Number of projects mapped to SD themes increased to 9% (from 7%)• In country capacity building programs strengthened – example participatory

budgeting in Bosnia-Herzegovina

A new business model

A more upstream and integrated approachDo more macro, policy and country focused work, and less on

project by project basis

Implementation plan:• Resources

– Financial, Human• Operational Policy and Strategy Framework• Facilitating Cross-Sectoral Work• Monitoring Results

– Country Outcomes, Country and Bank processes• Managing Risks

– Implementation Risks– Reputation Risks

Questions and challenges

• Capacity building is lagging behind, is there scope for partnerships with civil society here?

• How to support better social development content without more conditionality?

• How to balance Bank due diligence with support for in-country work?

• Limits for World Bank engagement?