Community and Local Development

Experience has shown that when given clear and transparent rules, access to information, and appropriate technical and financial support, communities can effectively organize to identify community priorities and address local development challenges by working in partnership with local governments and other institutions to build small-scale infrastructure, deliver basic services and enhance livelihoods. 

The World Bank recognizes that CLD approaches and actions are important elements of an effective poverty-reduction and sustainable development strategy. 

In many countries, CLD operations are the only mechanism available to reach remote and vulnerable groups in a timely, credible and responsive manner. They have a strong track record in moving funds quickly and flexibly in response to natural disasters such as typhoons or earthquakes, as well as to other crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, as a complement to household cash transfers, community-level (block) grants that are based on community emergency plans can be distributed to rural villages and urban neighborhoods since community groups often know best what the specific needs are in each community.  

The Bank has supported governments in designing, implementing, and evaluating CLD programs across a range of low to middle-income countries, including countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV). The programs respond to a variety of urgent needs including access to clean water, rural roads, school and health clinic construction, nutrition programs for mothers and infants, and support for micro-enterprises.  These programs have consistently shown an ability to deliver an increase in access to quality infrastructure and services in a cost-effective manner, and in ways that enjoy broad community support and local legitimacy. 

Last Updated: Mar 27, 2023

Over the past decades, many national governments have used CLD approaches as a way to combat poverty and reduce inequality. The approach of partnering with communities and local units of government, including putting resources under the direct control of community groups, has led to the efficient and inclusive delivery of basic services, and, when sustained over time, measurable reductions in poverty, particularly among the poorest populations and communities. 

As of June 2022, the World Bank supported 373 active CLD projects in 96 countries – including 96 countries supported by the International Development Association (IDA) – for a total lending of $42.4 = billion (69% of which is IDA or IDA/blend).  CLD approaches are particularly prominent in conflict, fragile, and violent (FCV) situations and in lagging regions. As of June 2022, the global active CLD-FCV portfolio covered 29 of the 39 countries (74%) on the FY21 Harmonized List of Fragile Situations, as well as 15 other countries that are experiencing subnational conflict, hosting internally displaced persons (IDPs) or refugees, or are recovering from conflict.

CLD programs have evolved over time to adapt to many different local contexts and needs, delivering tangible results on the ground in some of the most geographically remote and operationally hard-to-reach areas on the globe. 

Moving forward, the World Bank is leveraging the opportunities that CLD approaches and platforms offer, including delivering increased engagement in FCV situations , and deepening understanding and new approaches in the following key frontier areas: 

• Responding to the impact of COVID-19, including to support prevention, mitigation and recovery.  Lessons from previous pandemics, including the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak, highlight the importance of social responses to crisis management and recovery to complement medical efforts.  In the case of COVID-19, partnerships between communities, healthcare systems, local governments, and the private sector can play a critical role in slowing the spread, mitigating impacts, and supporting local recovery by supporting communications and behavior change for prevention, providing rapid emergency responses , mitigating economic impacts, and building resilience for the future.  A portfolio of existing CLD operations offers platforms ready to support immediate action, with the potential for supporting longer-term recovery and resilience.

• Operating in situations of fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV).  CLD programs have proved particularly effective in FCV situations.  A 2016 review by the Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) found CLD approaches to be among the most frequent operational approach in the World Bank Group’s FCV portfolio.  This is linked, in part, to the ability of CLD programs to reach remote or insecure areas effectively and at scale, and their track record in delivering results quickly and in an inclusive manner.  The importance of inclusive service provision to prevent conflict was highlighted in the recent UN-World Bank flagship study Pathways for Peace, and the World Bank has launched a global innovation and learning program to foster the contributions of CLD programs in conflict prevention.  Countries that have drawn upon CLD approaches in the Africa region include, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Mali, Mozambique and South Sudan).

• Combatting the impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations. As the climate continues to change, millions of vulnerable people face greater challenges in terms of extreme events, health effects, food and water security, livelihood security, and migration. The World Bank supports CLD approaches and devolved climate finance that empower communities to drive a climate agenda in support of their development goals and promote greater transparency and accountability on climate finance for local stakeholders.

• Supporting local economic development. Building on successful experiences of programs in South Asia as well as Latin America and the Caribbean regions, work is underway to expand the use of CLD approaches in supporting local economic development.  This responds to high and growing demand, including in middle-income countries, and includes work to support market-oriented investments and value chain opportunities, as well as increasing community level access to finance, including through digital technologies. 

• Seizing opportunities for convergence with sector programs and with formal decentralization reforms. When operating well, CLD programs can offer an effective local development platform that can assist the targeting, cost efficiency, service quality, and overall accountability of sector programs. It can embed principles of transparency, accountability, and participation into the entire sub-national governance system, but this may require enabling environments and policy-level reforms, including fiscal decentralization.

The World Bank is taking up these opportunities through targeted analytical work, technical assistance to flagship programs around the world, quality assurance support through information and knowledge exchange, and by supporting staff skills development.

Last Updated: Mar 28, 2023

In recent years, World Bank support for CLD has increasingly focused on creating national platforms to enhance service delivery and address poverty. Many programs that began as stand-alone operations have gradually expanded to much wider, often national, coverage that have become part of formal decentralization strategies and have addressed multi-sectoral issues.

Indonesia: Launched in 2018 and building on the successful structures created under previous CLD programs, the Investing in Nutrition and Early Years project is a flagship initiative by the government of Indonesia to prevent childhood stunting and invest in human capital.  This cross-sectoral effort supports the implementation of the government’s National Strategy to Accelerate Stunting Prevention. Launched by the Indonesian Vice President in August 2017, the strategy commits 23 ministries, 514 regional governments, and 75,000 villages to converge priority interventions across health, water and sanitation, early childhood education, social protection, and agriculture and food security sectors for households with pregnant mothers and children under age two.

Morocco: The National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) was launched in 2005 to improve the living conditions of poor and vulnerable groups through enhanced economic opportunities, better access to basic and social services, and improved governance. Phase 2 of INDH (2011-2015) expanded the target population and geographic scope from 667 to 1,234 communities and from $1.2 billion to $2.1 billion over five years. The World Bank supported the second phase of INDH through its first Program-for-Results operation, focusing on enhancing access and quality in service provision; strengthening participatory local governance and social accountability; enhancing economic inclusion; and supporting capacity and systems development. From 2005 to 2015, over 45,000 community-driven sub-projects were financed, providing more than 10 million beneficiaries with access to basic social and economic infrastructure services and training.  The INDH impact evaluation showed: an 86% increase in the number of households with access to improved water supply; 84% of girls in project-supported dormitories graduating to the next grade; a 21% increase in average household income; and 62% increased access to basic infrastructure such as roads, electricity, sanitation, schools, and local health centers.

Bolivia: The $40 million Community Investment in Rural Areas Project has an overall goal to fight extreme rural poverty among small landholders, particularly indigenous populations. Starting in late 2011, the project has since transferred responsibility and resources to more than 362,620  rural inhabitants in 656 highly vulnerable communities (30% above the target of 500 communities), and supported 880 sub-projects to improve access to basic and productive infrastructure for rural households. To date, the project has increased road access for more than 29,866  people, and expanded or improved irrigation for more than 73,638  beneficiaries. In 2015, the government received a $60 million Additional Financing credit to expand and deepen the success of the project to reach an additional 200,000 beneficiaries. 

Nigeria: The Community and Social Development Project (CSDP) has benefitted 23 million people across 29 states. An impact evaluation of CSDP indicated reduced maternal and child mortality; increased school enrolment and attendance; reduced distance, cost, and time of accessing water, healthcare services, and electricity; and increased earnings from farming. This led some states and local governments to adopt the CLD approach and increase local budget allocations to community-led activities. The World Bank approved an additional loan of $75 million to expand welfare provision and enhance services to communities, especially the internally displaced affected by the conflict in Northeast Nigeria.

Last Updated: Mar 28, 2023