Social Development in the World Bank From Vision to Action September 23d, 2005 Steen 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 Banks 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 macro Increase attention to social development in the Banks policy dialogue and policy based lending Strategic Priority 2: Better projects Improve project effectiveness by mainstreaming social development into project level processes and strengthening free-standing portfolio Strategic Priority 3: Better grounding Improve 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 approach Do 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?