1. The Community Empowerment Network (CEN):
Communities of Practice for Local Capacity in Central Asia
World Bank Institute (WBI)
Europe and Central Asia Social Development unit (ECSSD)

2. CEN and Context for Community Driven Development (CDD) in Central Asia
“Critical issues for scaling up CDD in Central Asia prepared by the CDD Working Group/ECSSD (especially knowledge management and sharing pillar)
CAS (e.g. Community-Linked Development in Tajikistan)
Lending operations (NSIFT, VIP, AzRIP)

3. Knowledge sharing – A Tool for Scaling Up
The Community Empowerment Network for Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan (CEN) was launched by WBI and the Europe and Central Asia Social Development unit (ECSSD) in late 2002 as a community of practice for community-driven development (CDD) practitioners.

4. Knowledge sharing – A Tool for Scaling Up (cont)
Launching of various CDD-type operations in a short time in CAR, yet not enough time to capture and share lessons and knowledge
The CoP tool was chosen by WBI to build capacity in Central Asia for scaling up Community-driven Development (CDD)
CEN contributed to the creation of an ongoing, year-round, national-level activity that would allow for greater impact on the ground, and act as a more flexible tool to support the strategy for scaling up.

5. Knowledge sharing – A Tool for Scaling Up (cont)
For CDD and Communities of Practice:
Added value of the CoP as a means to scale up CDD is that both approaches are mutually reinforcing since they stress the critical importance of social capital.

6. Guiding Principles
WBI developed a set of guiding principles to help ensure lessons learned would be applied to ensure the success of the project.
These principles include:
- Local ownership
- Multi-stakeholder
participation/perspectives
- Year-round activity
- Linkage to World Bank
country activities
- Partnerships to leverage
knowledge and resources

7. Two major levels of networking
National Networks
National Partner
Steering Group
Action Plan
Mapping Exercise
CEN
Regional Networking
Monthly Videoconferences
Annual Conferences
Regional Web
E-Newsletter
Closed distribution list

8. Evaluation Results Public awareness building
What has worked?
Public awareness building
Community-to-community knowledge sharing
Tapping into local knowledge
Local Partnership
Building institutional capacity for CDD
Local language focus
Didn’t work so well
Linkages to World Bank Operations
Innovative approaches
Donor coordination
Objectives and evaluation
Worked moderately well
- Government involvement
- Stock-taking of CDD Initiatives
- Regional exchange

9. Challenges and Constraints
Advanced programming in a multi-year capacity building initiative
Learning and KS may involve a small financial investment as compared to lending operations, yet time intensive
Linking to Operations vs. in-country multi-stakeholder ownership

10. Different starting points  different progress
The future of CEN
Different starting points  different progress
WBI will focus more on the regional dimension, with a focus on distance learning and Internet technologies.
The expectation is that
rather than providing
funds for each Network
to use, the Networks
will instead come to
WBI when they need
resources, whether financial or intellectual, for specific activities.

11. Lessons for Better Communities of Practice
Place a greater emphasis on peer review between countries
Establish clear indicators of progress
Focus as much on processes as on activities