Social Funds and Reaching Proceedings from an international workshop the Poor organized by The World Bank and Experiences and AFRICATIP La Red Social de América Latina y el Caribe Future Directions NGO-WB Committee with the support of Edited by Anthony G. Bigio African Development Bank Canadian International Development Agency International Labour Office Organization of American States The World Bank Washington, D.C. Contents Foreword ................................................................................................................................. v Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... vii Part I Overview 1 1. Main Outcomes and Recommendations .......................................................................3 2. Partnerships and Participation in the Workshop....................................................... 13 Anthony G. Bigio Part II Updating the Conventional Wisdom 17 3. The World Bank’s View on Social Funds .................................................................... 19 Sven Sandström, Vinod Thomas, Ishrat Husain, Joseph Stiglitz 4. The Partners’ View of Social Funds ............................................................................. 27 Eduardo Diaz Uribe, Magatte Wade, Manuel Chiriboga 5. The World Bank Portfolio Review of Social Funds Projects..................................... 35 Prem Garg, Soniya Carvalho, Christine Kessides 6. The Inter-American Development Bank’s Study of Social Funds........................... 43 Margaret Goodman, Samuel Morley Part III A Close Look at the Key Issues 51 Parallel Thematic Sessions 7. Social Funds: From Responses to Emergency to Development .............................. 53 8. Financial Resource Mobilization for Social Funds .................................................... 59 9. Role of NGOs in the Design, Management, and Implementation of Social Funds ......65 10. Decentralization, Local Governments, and Social Funds......................................... 71 11. Social Funds, Private Sector Development, and Microenterprises ......................... 77 12. Designing Social Fund Components—Sectors, Themes, and Access......................83 13. Monitoring and Evaluation of Social Funds............................................................... 89 14. Sustainability of Subprojects, Maintenance, and Operations ..................................95 15. Environmental Assessment of Social Funds Subprojects ....................................... 101 16. Social Funds Systems, Outreach, and Communication Systems .......................... 107 Constituencies’ Consultations 17. Social Funds’ Directors ................................................................................................ 113 18. Municipalities ............................................................................................................... 115 19. NGO Representatives .................................................................................................. 117 20. Development Agencies ................................................................................................ 119 Regional Consultations 21. Africa .............................................................................................................................. 121 22. Eastern Europe and Central Asia ...............................................................................125 iii iv Contents 23. Latin America and the Caribbean .............................................................................. 129 24. Middle East and North Africa .................................................................................... 133 25. Development, Equity, and Social Justice................................................................... 135 Aminata Mbengue Ndiaye, Senegal 26. Workshop Concluding Remarks ................................................................................ 139 Steen Jorgensen and Ishrat Husain Part IV Original Workshop Papers 147 27. The Social Investment Fund in the Context of National Development ............... 149 Marco Camacho, Director, Social Investment Fund, Bolivia 28. Financial Resources Mobilization for Social Funds ................................................. 159 Hussein M. El Gammal, Managing Director, Social Fund for Development, Egypt 29. Social Funds: An Expanded NGO Critique .............................................................. 167 Jane Covey, Executive Director, and Tim Abbott, Research Assistant, Institute for Development Research, United States 30. Social Investment Funds, Local Governments, and Communities in Central America............................................................................................................ 179 Patricia de Jager, Director, Federation of Municipalities of Central America, Guatemala 31. Social Funds and Development of the Private Sector: The Case of Mali.............. 185 Lamine Ben Barka, Director, AGETIPE, Mali 32. Designing Social Fund Components: Sectors, Themes, and Access...................... 191 Scarlette Gillings, Director, Social Fund, Jamaica 33. Zambia Recovery Project—Evaluations and Perspective of the Central Government .................................................................................................... 199 Irene M. Kamanga, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Zambia 34. Sustainability of Subprojects, Their Operation and Maintenance......................... 205 Werner Neuhauss, Sector Economist, Social Policy Department, KfW, Germany 35. Appraisal and Environment Assessment of Social Fund Subprojects: The Case of Ethiopia ............................................................................. 211 Abebaw Alemayehu, Deputy Director, Social Fund, Ethiopia 36. Information Systems, Outreach, and Communication of Social Funds ............... 219 Sam Kahkobwe, Director, Social Action Fund, Malawi Annexes 227 Annex 1: Workshop Program ............................................................................................ 229 Annex 2: List of Participants ............................................................................................. 235 Annex 3: International Workshop Credits ...................................................................... 247 Foreword In May 1997, about 250 social fund practitioners came together in Washington, D.C. for a work- shop sponsored jointly by the World Bank’s Economic Development Institute and a number of its partners from inside and outside the Bank. As the conclusions of the workshop clearly state, social funds have become an important instrument in our fight against poverty. Social funds have also proven to be effective in forging partnerships with the private sector and with community groups to help the poor help themselves. In fact, social funds are reaching areas and groups heretofore untouched by public sector interventions, demonstrating that par- ticipatory development can be both cost-effective and quick. Social funds, however, should not be seen as a magic wand that will eradicate poverty. They can only be truly effective when combined with sustainable economic policies and investments in people. As a follow-up to the workshop, the World Bank is supporting regional seminars as well as the strengthening or creation of regional networks of social funds, and we see an increasing need for this kind of knowledge exchange and learning. Looking back at ten years of experi- ence, the Bank has found social funds to be a unique and valuable instrument, both in reaching poor people directly and in catalyzing the energies of a wide range of partners: public, private, nongovernmental organizations, and local communities. Looking forward to the next ten years, it is crucial that we build on the lessons of experience to ensure that we use this instrument as effectively as possible. The ideas of those who have contributed to this volume will help us achieve that goal. Sven Sandström Managing Director The World Bank v Acknowledgments This publication benefited from the collaboration, advice, and comments of a number of people. Steen Jorgensen and Soniya Carvalho served as peer reviewers and brought to their role of oversight and quality control their experience and knowledge of social funds. Deepali Tewari reviewed the audiotapes of the discussions that took place in the ten the- matic parallel sessions and on that basis wrote the resulting section, shortened and edited the original conference papers, and provided general assistance in the editorial task. Alberto Harth, David Steel, Roy Thomasson, and Mary Schmidt prepared the summaries of the regional consultations. Manuel Chiriboga, Eduardo Diaz Uribe, Prem Garg, Ishrat Husain, Tariq Husain, Vinod Thomas, and Magatte Wade provided substantive comments on the pro- ceedings in their capacity as steering committee members. Jan Bojo, Katrinka Ebbe, Gita Gopal, Jennifer Sara, Michael Stevens, and Norbert Mugwagwa commented on the summaries of the parallel sessions. Cecilia Zavaleta was in charge of formatting, spellchecking, and assembling the various versions of the manuscript. The image on the cover is the work of Patricia Hord, who designed the workshop’s program. I am extremely grateful to all of them for their work. I especially wish to thank the authors of the ten original papers, who agreed to reflect on their operational experience with social funds, and the workshop participants whose commitment and