Community-Based and Driven Development: A Critical Review
Community-based (and driven) development (CBD/CDD) projects have become an important form of development assistance, with the World Bank's portfolio alone approximating 7 billion dollars. The authors review the conceptual foundations of CBD/CD...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, D.C.
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/02/3889852/community-based-driven-development-critical-review http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14310 |
| Summary: | Community-based (and driven) development
(CBD/CDD) projects have become an important form of
development assistance, with the World Bank's portfolio
alone approximating 7 billion dollars. The authors review
the conceptual foundations of CBD/CDD initiatives. Given the
importance of the topic, there are, unfortunately, a dearth
of well-designed evaluations of such projects. But there is
enough quantitative and qualitative evidence from studies
that have either been published in peer-reviewed
publications or have been conducted by independent
researchers to glean some instructive lessons. The authors
find that projects that rely on community participation have
not been particularly effective at targeting the poor. There
is some evidence that CBD/CDD projects create effective
community infrastructure, but not a single study establishes
a causal relationship between any outcome and participatory
elements of a CBD project. Most CBD projects are dominated
by elites and, in general, the targeting of poor communities
as well as project quality tend to be markedly worse in more
unequal communities. However, a number of studies find a
U-shaped relationship between inequality and project
outcomes. The authors also find that a distinction between
potentially "benevolent" forms of elite domination
and more pernicious types of "capture" is likely
to be important for understanding project dynamics and
outcomes. Several qualitative studies indicate that the
sustainability of CBD initiatives depends crucially on an
enabling institutional environment, which requires upward
commitment. Equally, the literature indicates that community
leaders need to be downwardly accountable to avoid a variant
of "supply-driven demand-driven development."
Qualitative evidence also suggests that external agents
strongly influence project success. However, facilitators
are often poorly trained and inexperienced, particularly
when programs are rapidly scaled up. Overall, a naive
application of complex contextual concepts like
"participation," "social capital," and
"empowerment" is endemic among project
implementers and contributes to poor design and
implementation. In sum, the evidence suggests that CBD/CDD
is best done in a context-specific manner, with a long
time-horizon, and with careful and well-designed monitoring
and evaluation systems. |
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