Social Inclusion

In every country, some groups confront barriers that prevent them from fully participating in political, economic, and social life. These groups may be excluded not only through legal systems, land, and labor markets, but also discriminatory or stigmatizing attitudes, beliefs, or perceptions. Disadvantage is often based on gender, age, location, occupation, race, ethnicity, religion, citizenship status, disability, and sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), among other factors. This kind of social exclusion robs individuals of dignity, security, and the opportunity to lead a better life. Unless the root causes of structural exclusion and discrimination are addressed, it will be challenging to support sustainable inclusive growth and rapid poverty reduction. 

The COVID-19 pandemic put the spotlight on deep-rooted systemic inequalities. As COVID-19 continues to have wide-reaching impacts across the globe, it is important to understand the differentiated and intensified impact the pandemic has on the most marginalized, including women, persons with disabilities, unemployed youth, sexual and gender minorities, the elderly, Indigenous Peoples, and ethnic and racial minorities. For example, many persons with disabilities have underlying health conditions that made them particularly vulnerable to severe symptoms of COVID-19. Women and children have been  affected by increasing rates of domestic violence as a result of lockdowns and increased stress on households. Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people have struggled more than ever to access health services and are overrepresented among those without access to social security. In some contexts, groups who have historically faced barriers to access to health systems due to discrimination on ethnic or racial grounds have had higher mortality rates than other groups and have experienced difficulty accessing information about the pandemic, access to equitable care, and access to vaccines.

Social inclusion is the right thing to do, and it also makes good economic sense. Left unaddressed, the exclusion of disadvantaged groups can be costly. At the individual level, the most commonly measured impacts include the loss of wages, lifetime earnings, poor education, and employment outcomes. Racism and discrimination also have physical and mental health costs. At the national level, the economic cost of social exclusion can be captured by foregone gross domestic product (GDP) and human capital wealth.

Exclusion, or the perception of exclusion, may cause certain groups to opt out of markets, services, and spaces, with costs to both individuals and the economy. Globally, the loss in human capital wealth due to gender inequality alone is estimated at $160.2 trillion. Afro-descendants continue to experience significantly higher levels of poverty (2.5 times higher in Latin America). 90 percent of children with disabilities in developing countries do not attend school. In many countries, it is especially difficult to tackle LGBTI exclusion, discrimination, and violence. To date, 70 countries continue to criminalize homosexuality.

Over time, exclusion can also contribute to social tensions and even risks of violence and conflict, with significant long-term social and economic costs.

Social inclusion is vital to achieving the World Bank Group’s twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. The World Bank’s Environmental and Social Framework (ESF), which applies to all investment project financing, emphasizes that social inclusion is critical for all of the World Bank’s development interventions and for achieving sustainable development.

That is why the World Bank has prioritized an inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the recent IDA20 Final Replenishment Report has an increased emphasis on inclusion, with 14 out of 41 Policy Commitments explicitly mentioning inclusion. The current crisis has to be seen as opportunity to focus on the rebuilding more inclusive systems that allow society as a whole to be more resilient to future shocks, whether health, climate, natural disasters, or social unrest.

The World Bank’s work on Social Sustainability and Inclusion has a new strategic direction that focuses on creating opportunities for all people and addressing deep rooted systemic inequalities.

The World Bank supports social sustainability and inclusion by fostering inclusive and resilient societies where citizens have voice and governments respond. This is essential to support growth and poverty reduction not only today, but also in the future.  We start with a focus on people—their values and aspirations—while also focusing on the communities where they live and work.  Too often, development policy focuses on national and regional governments or private sector development, while not putting enough attention on developing the communities, particularly those with marginalized or vulnerable populations, or those or in conflict or remote areas. We seek to advance a whole-of-society approach, focusing not only on strengthening communities but also the quality of their engagement with government and the private sector. To this end, we work through CSOs, with producer associations, private actors, and wherever possible institutionalized citizen engagement.  The vision is to create vibrant communities that offer opportunities to all residents to reach their potential and a business climate that can support livelihoods and the advancement of everyone in the community.

The World Bank is expanding the inclusion agenda to explicitly address the exclusion of racial and ethnic minorities. In Latin America, Afro-descendants are 2.5 times more likely to be impoverished. Furthermore, experts believe minorities like Afro-descendants likely suffer more during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Social inclusion means ensuring all groups, irrespective of race or ethnicity, have meaningful voice and can live prosperous lives.

The Bank engages on issues of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) through its operations. Although IPs make up 5% of the global population, they account for about 15% of the extreme poor. Deepening the understanding of Indigenous Peoples’ issues and needs, especially the interrelationship between cultural and community resilience, and their lands, territories and natural resources. Responding to these issues through WB projects and programs is a key role of the World Bank’s work.

The WBG is committed to citizen engagement. Citizens play a critical role in advocating and helping to make public institutions more transparent, accountable, and effective, and contributing innovative solutions to complex development challenges. Engaging citizens is especially important during times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic as the effectiveness of response efforts can often hinge on behavior change at the micro-level. Informing and receiving feedback from citizens in real time can provide insight into how the crisis is affecting communities. This enables real-time course correction to find solutions in fast evolving situations (including post-crisis)

In 2018, the World Bank launched its first Disability Inclusion and Accountability Framework and announced ten WBG commitments to accelerate global action for disability-inclusive development. A Global Disability Advisor serves as a focal point for integrating disability inclusion into the World Bank’s development projects through its analytical work, data, and good-practice policies.

The WBG has established a multi-sectoral task force to spearhead work on sexual orientation gender identity (SOGI) issues. The World Bank also continues to increase research on the economic impact of discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons as well as other groups. In 2016, the Bank appointed a Global Advisor on SOGI—responsible for promoting LGBTI inclusion throughout the work of the World Bank and IDA20 for the first time recognizes sexual orientation as driver of exclusion.

The World Bank Gender Strategy (2016-2022) aims to help countries and companies achieve gender equality as a pathway toward lasting poverty reduction and shared prosperity and security. Social Inclusion and Gender Platforms have been established by the World Bank as a consolidated approach toward social inclusion. Platforms in Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, and Ethiopia among others provide strategic support to project teams on social inclusion and gender issues by sponsoring frontier technical and analytical work, promoting innovation and knowledge sharing, and mainstreaming through Bank operations. In-country partnerships are a significant part of the implementation strategy of these platforms.

In October 2016, the World Bank launched a Global Gender-Based Violence (GGBV) Task Force to strengthen the institution’s response through its projects to issues involving sexual exploitation and abuse. Community-driven development (CDD) approaches and actions are important elements of an effective poverty reduction and sustainable development strategy. The World Bank has supported CDD across low to middle-income—and conflict-affected—countries to support a variety of urgent needs.

Examples of the World Bank’s reports and analytical work on social inclusion include:

• Disability-Inclusive Disaster Recovery (2020). The guidance note provides action-oriented direction for government officials and decisionmakers with responsibility for post-disaster recovery and reconstruction. The guidance supports the development of disability inclusive planning and programming across sectors and government. The note is of interest to wider government and nongovernment actors, including disabled persons' organizations (DPOs), concerned with inclusive recovery. For more on Disability Inclusion.
• Inclusion Matters in Africa (2020). Grounded in the experience of African countries, this 2020 report highlights examples of the remarkable innovations that abound in Africa and of the policy and programmatic movement towards social inclusion. It surmises that social inclusion must be based on a clear social contract that recognizes both the costs and benefits of policies and interventions towards social inclusion.
• Breaking the Cycle of Roma Exclusion in the Western Balkans (2019). This report aims to inform policy making by relying on data from the Regional Roma Survey (RRS), the most comprehensive survey to date on living conditions and human development outcomes among marginalized Roma households in the Western Balkans, as well as non-Roma households in the vicinity.
• Released in August 2018, the Afro-descendants in Latin America: Toward a Framework of Inclusion report is an important step toward better understanding the conditions in which Afro-descendants live to help foster social inclusion and improve their economic situation across Latin America.
• In 2018, the World Bank developed the Social Inclusion Assessment Tool (SIAT), a methodology to assess social inclusion in projects, programs, and policies. The WBG’s Global Lead on Social Inclusion provides overarching technical leadership and guidance to advance these efforts.
• Inclusion Matters (2013). The Foundation for Shared Prosperity defines social inclusion for the World Bank and is one of the most comprehensive reviews of social inclusion available. It provides a frame of reference for policymakers, academics, activists, and development partners to help understand and move toward social inclusion. The report suggests how policies and programs can be designed through the lens of three main domains in which individuals and groups want to be included: markets, services, and spaces.