How Community and Local Development is helping close the Jobs Gap amid Fragility, Conflict, and Violence

Development Challenge

The World Bank Group estimates that 1.2 billion young people in developing countries will enter the labor market by in the next decade, but only around 420 million jobs are expected to be created. The 'jobs gap' will be more prominent in countries facing fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV), where barriers to job-creation are particularly high. It is in FCV settings with large and growing youth populations that jobs are most urgently needed to generate hope for the future and help drive economic and social stability.

Community and Local Development (CLD) help create jobs by putting resources and decision‑making in the hands of communities and local governments to finance the small‑scale infrastructure, services, and livelihood investments that stimulate local markets, generate short‑term employment, and help micro and small enterprises grow—especially for women and vulnerable groups.

Results and Outcomes

• First phase of the Nigeria for Women Project empowered about 460,000 women with financial inclusion, such as accessing banking services, doubling the project's target. Women beneficiaries reported increased income, productive assets, contributions to household expenditure and improved resilience
• Women Affinity Groups (WAGs) supported by the Nigeria for Women Program Scale Up project help women open bank accounts, adopt mobile wallets, and gain job-ready skills. WAGs had reached over 1 million by February 2024, exceeding targets, and are estimated to create economic opportunities for an additional 4 million women by 2028
• Myanmar’s Strengthening Community Resilience Project (SCORE) will provide livelihood support for 595,000 people, including productive infrastructure, trainings, payment-for-work and women's economic empowerment. The project activities will strengthen community resilience and support development gains in Myanmar’s most vulnerable communities in conflict-affected areas.
• Afghanistan Community Resilience and Livelihoods Project (CRLP) has provided short-term jobs to over 1.3 million households, including 294,000 displaced people and returnees, and 15.2 million Afghans with improved access to services and productive assets that stimulate local economic activity. At least 80,000 Afghan women have gained direct employment, while a further 20,000 women received assets, skills development, and market linkage support to start microenterprises.

World Bank Group Approach

To address the FCV jobs gap, the World Bank Group uses Community and Local Development (CLD), an innovative approach that places communities at the center of their own development. With 341 projects worth $48 billion, over 40 percent in FCV, while CLD accounts for 10 percent of the total financing. CLD provides grants to local platforms, where people decide what would best support their goals and help manage project funds, often in partnership with local governments and UN agencies. CLD funds activities that are vital for job-creation: improving health, education, and skills; building infrastructure to connect people to markets and increase productivity; and supporting micro-enterprises. Projects also create jobs by hiring local workers to implement activities and buying goods and services from local firms. And by bringing groups and governments together to drive development, CLD builds trust and reduces conflict risks.

In countries in crisis, like Myanmar and Afghanistan, CLD protects development gains—continuing  service delivery through local platforms, maintaining local institutions and community infrastructure, and supporting Medium, Small and Micro Entreprises (MSMEs) as the primary source of jobs.

In Afghanistan the Community Resilience and Livelihoods Project (CRLP) helps displaced individuals or returnees, like Nooriza and her family. After 12 years in Pakistan, Noorzia was forced back to Afghanistan with her husband and six children. They returned with nothing. Noorzia took a job with CRLP and now uses her pay for rent, food, and medicine. 

"Our children were scared and crying when we moved. If there’s work, there’s a way forward."

Contribution to WBG Targets and Jobs

CLD advances the World Bank Group (WBG) institutional priorities. Two-thirds of these projects in FCV settings promote jobs. CLD improves people's resilience to climate risks and provides services to displaced and host communities. CLD’s cross-sector adaptability advances WBG goals, including health services for 1.5 billion people, social protection for 500 million people, connecting 300 million Africans with energy, and agriculture modernization for rural jobs and resilience.

Lessons Learned

CLD catalyzes sustainable development in FCV settings by delivering vital services, providing resilient infrastructure, creating skills for jobs, linking people to markets, and building trust to mitigate conflict.  

CLD delivers measurable results in FCV contexts, providing life-changing support to strengthen resilience among women, youth, and other vulnerable groups. Where government capacity is weak, CLD platforms deliver results, efficiently channeling resources to meet the priorities of hard-to-reach communities.

For the private sector, CLD drives investment and job-creation, mobilizing savings for business growth (Nigeria), building human capital and skills (Myanmar), providing income for the most vulnerable displaced people in the world and strengthening capacity of community institutions to sustain basic service delivery (Afghanistan).

Next Steps

The World Bank Group will increasingly leverage CLD for job-creation and social protection in FCV settings. Strategic project approaches help CLD teams more deliberately to create jobs by maximizing local labor, buying from local firms, providing employer-demanded skills, and linking firms to markets. Social protection efforts will include using CLD platforms to target cash transfers to the most vulnerable people and integrating household cash support with public services and infrastructure funded by CLD, linked approaches that can significantly enhance human capital, especially in fragile contexts. As FCV deepens and the jobs gap widens, centering communities can advance development in the most difficult settings.