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.

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). Ninety 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. More than 60 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.

The World Bank’s work on social sustainability and inclusion 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 supporting 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 on 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 for all residents to reach their potential and to create a business climate that can support livelihoods and the advancement of everyone in the community.

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

The World Bank Group 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 a crisis is affecting communities. This enables rapid 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 World Bank Group 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 and other groups. In 2016, the Bank appointed a Global Advisor on SOGI—responsible for promoting LGBTI inclusion throughout the work of the World Bank.

The World Bank Gender Strategy (2024-2030) 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.