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Major World Bank Programs |
Social development | |
Poverty reduction activities
Environmentally sustainable development |
While considerable progress was made over the past decade to incorporate the
environmental dimensions of development into Bank work, less was done to incorporate the
social dimensions. This began to change in the early 1990s with the introduction of
poverty assessments and with the development of methods and
tools both to understand the needs of poor people and to spread the benefits of
development more broadly. The Bank has increasingly used beneficiary assessment and
stakeholder participation, for example, to improve project design and to make project
implementation more inclusive. And social and beneficiary assessments were introduced
to gather social data and help countries set program priorities as well as to provide
opportunities for the poor to voice concerns and make proposals. Though not mandatory,
about seventy social assessments have been completed by Bank staff and borrowers during
the past two years. Recognizing shortfalls, however, the Task Group on Social
Development was created in fiscal 1997 to examine how social concerns could be more effectively
absorbed into the development paradigm and be used for policymaking purposes.
The task force recognized:
The task group recommended that social policies and procedures be better integrated and more comprehensive; that social analysis and participatory approaches be mainstreamed into project and analytical work; and that Bank procedures be used more flexibly to accommodate client diversity and innovation. The Social Learning Group was established and is following up on recommendations and monitoring implementation. Considerable progress has been made since the task group reported: regional offices have prepared and submitted Social Action Plans that build upon, and in some cases incorporate, ongoing work on poverty, participation, social assessment and gender; proposals have been made to identify key social issues by country and address them through CAS and analytical work; and work programs include strategies to improve performance in areas such as NGO coordination and in new areas such as postconflict reconstruction. An outgrowth of the report was the formation of the Social Development Family, which includes staff working on participation and with NGOs, social policy staff, and social scientists from across the Bank. The Social Development Board has been established. Its work program includes measuring progress through monitorable benchmarks. Resources for social development initiatives have been made available under the Strategic Compact, and a postconflict unit was established on July 1, 1997. Work on social development is at an early stage, about the same stage as work on environmentally sustainable development was a decade ago. But the high level of commitment is expected to lead to rapid development. The Social Development Family is working closely with other groups in the Bank to promote community-based participation; to link social and environmental assessments more closely; to mainstream activities; and to undertake joint research. And partnerships on social issues are being developed with other donors such as international agencies, including the Inter-American Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank, and groups such as the Social Development Adviser Network. |
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World Bank Group |
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