OVER THE PAST DECADE, THE WORLD BANK HAS ALLOCATED
almost $85 billion to local participatory development. Driving this
massive injection of funding has been the underlying belief that involving
communities in at least some aspects of project design and implementation
creates a closer connection between development aid and
its intended benefi ciaries. Indeed, local participation is proposed as a
method to achieve a variety of goals, including sharpening poverty targeting,
improving service delivery, expanding livelihood opportunities,
and strengthening demand for good governance.
In principle, a more engaged citizenry should be able to achieve a
higher level of cooperation and make government more accountable.
In practice, little is known about how best to foster such engagement.
Can participation be induced through the type of large-scale government
and donor-funded participatory programs that have become a
leitmotif of development policy? It is this question that is at the heart of
this Policy Research Report.
The two major modalities for inducing local participation are community
development and decentralization of resources and authority to
local governments. Community development supports efforts to bring
villages, urban neighborhoods, or other household groupings into the
process of managing development resources without relying on formally
constituted local governments. Community development projects—
variously labeled community-driven development, community-based
development, community livelihood projects, and social funds—
include efforts to expand community engagement in service delivery.
Designs for this type of aid can range from community-based targeting,