Number 06 June, 1995 Participation in Social Funds The newest Bank supported social funds are designed explicitly to increase the participation of beneficiaries in identifying and managing microprojects, with the aim of making project activities more relevant and sustainable. Features which support participation are built into the design of the funds' management structure and of the microproject cycle. Additional time, management and training resources are needed to assess and build the necessary capacity of local organizations; and special measures may be required to enable the most marginalized groups to participate. Social funds have spread rapidly in developing the Ethiopia Social Rehabilitation Fund--are countries since the well known Bolivia Emergency designed explicitly to increase beneficiary Social Fund was launched in 1987. The first large participation in microproject identification and scalefundsweredesignedastemporaryinstitutions management as well as costs. to mitigate the adverse impact of structural adjustmentbycreatingemploymentanddelivering Benefits emergency social programs. As objectives have evolved over time, funds are now also used more The involvement of beneficiaries in generally to support development in the social consultation, cost sharing and decision making can sectors and poverty reduction at the local level. improve the outcomes of Bank supported social funds by ensuring that the microproject is relevant Social funds are typically set up as autonomous to beneficiary needs, and by generating institutions, to provide funding to local commitment to sustaining project activities and organizations (community based organizations, benefits beyond the life of the fund. NGOs or local governments) in a more rapid, flexible and transparent manner than line Increasingly, beneficiary participation is also ministries. The funds do not themselves identify sought as an end. There are main two reasons. or implement microprojects; instead, they respond First, when communities are given the to requests generated by local groups, appraise responsibility and capacity to identify, implement projects for funding, supervise implementation of and supervise microprojects, they are better projects and monitor their effectiveness. prepared to involve themselves in future development activities. Second, social funds can Because most social funds have been serve as models for participatory processes, temporary, and because they have not provided demonstrating to governments and other for recurrent costs, fund managers have often intermediaries the feasibility and utility of faced difficulties in sustaining large numbers of participatory approaches. dispersed microprojects. Strategies to involve beneficiaries in cost sharing were developed Costs initially in response to these difficulties. Currently the World Bank is funding about thirty projects to Promotingparticipationinsocialfundsinvolves support social funds and the newest of these-- costs as well as benefits. Building the capacity of including the Gambia Social Recovery Fund and beneficiaries to assume responsibilities throughout This note is based on Environment Department Paper No.004, which was written by Mary Schmidt and Alexandre Marc as a contribution to the Participation Sourcebook. Copies of the full paper are available from the Social Development Department, The World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20433, Fax (202) 522-3247, E-Mail: sdpublications@worldbank.org. Dissemination Notes represent the views of their authors and are not official publications of the World Bank. enable the poorest and most marginalized among Box 1 Flexibility at the Regional Level - Mexico intended beneficiaries to participate. The National Indigenous Institute of Mexico (INI) and Because the implications of these trade-offs its regional Indigenous Coordinating Centers (CCI) are so important, fund designers must clarify and which are located in remote zones, launched the Funds integrate priorities from the outset. for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (FRS) in 1990. CCIs requested that each indigenous organization or Building Participation into community interested in receiving funds send representatives to regional assemblies organized Fund Design throughout the country. At these assemblies, the organizations elected five to nine member leadership Stakeholder Groups councils, which in turn were formed into subcommissions The participation of all stakeholder groups in to oversee the administrative, financial and technical aspects of the funds. social fund design--central and sectoral ministries, the NGO community, municipalities Once formed, INI transferred funds to the FRS, which then received, appraised and approved loan requests and local governments, as well as community from indigenous organizations for productive projects based organizations and beneficiaries--builds which these organizations designed and their members ownership and commitment to beneficiary implemented. participation among all parties on whom implementation will depend. the microproject cycle can increase management In preparing the Armenia Social Investment and training costs as more staff and equipment are Fund, efforts to cultivate wider government needed to reach beneficiaries and to build support included conducting seminars for senior organizationalcapacity.Someoftheseexpensescan government officials, taking them to the field to be absorbed by the microproject, but it is likely that observe beneficiary participation first hand, some will have to be covered by the social fund. involving them in targeting selection, and sharing reports with them. To support consensus In addition, social fund managers face two building, national debates involving parliaments, potential conflicts. First is the conflict between the the press and NGO communities, were promoted need for rapid microproject implementation and prior to establishing social funds in Zambia, the time required for consultation and capacity Guatemala and Honduras. In Albania and building. Second, since demand is expressed first Armenia, pilot phases were used to introduce and by communities with the skills necessary to demonstrate the concept of participation. prepare proposals and gain access to the fund, the demand driven nature of social funds may Appropriate tactics for disseminating have to be supplemented by special measures to information on social funds are outlined in Box 2. Box 2 Tips for a Successful Social Fund Media Campaign Media campaigns should be designed to increase the awareness of the population and the direct beneficiaries of the social fund; to sensitize and encourage community participation; to enhance a continuous dialogue with beneficiaries; and to maintain the flow of information about the running of the social fund. Tactics which have proven successful include: · Consulting government agencies and NGOs which have run media campaigns to determine the optimal strategy to reach the bulk of the population. Use of written media, like newspapers and leaflets, reaches mainly the literate, who may be a minority of the population. · Using visual media like posters and stickers to promote themes similar to those broadcast on radio or in other media. · Disseminating information through institutions, individuals and avenues (such as traditional singers and dramas) that are accepted and integrated into daily cultural practices; this will reduce the potential mistrust of the messages communicated. · Using radio spots on popular music radio stations to reach urban youth who tend to lose interest in more traditional channels. · Linking themes among different outlets to reinforce messages. · Enabling communities to express their own ideas, as through radio phone-in programs. Institutional Structures Box 3 When the fund is intended to be a temporary Zambia: Beneficiary Assessment institution, design must incorporate mechanisms in a Social Fund for transferring the participatory elements to regular government ministries. The Bolivia Phase II of the beneficiary assessment conducted for Emergency Social Fund developed a program for Zambia's Social Recovery Fund employed conversational training ministry staff in management interviews, participant observations and focus groups discussions. The combination of these research tools with information and cost control systems during a multidisciplinary research team from the Rural microproject appraisal and execution, and this Development Studies Bureau of the University of Zambia training will be extended to cover appraisal and helped to remove biases, strengthen the quantitative monitoring procedures. Similarly, the Ethiopian database, and obtain qualitative information. Social Rehabilitation Fund is training local The specific objectives of the study were to identify, government staff to work with communities in a examine and assess the factors affecting project participatory way. implementation and community participation. Such factors included: the allocation of responsibility for maintenance; the perceived impacts and benefits of Decentralization of fund management to projects; the views of beneficiaries and project committee regional offices encourages managers to pay managers on the performance of the Microprojects Unit greater attention to participation related issues, (MPU) and regional office; and governance issues such although it may also expose them to local political as transparency and accountability. pressure. Regional offices have been established Key findings on community and intermediary or are planned for fund management in eight organizations were as follows: countries(includingMexico,Box1),sometimesfor · In a minority of cases, communities had no say in the purely logistical reasons, but sometimes to selection of the project committee. decentralize responsibility for consulting with · The average female representation on project communities and for contracts with local committees was less than 20 percent. Among the organizations. factors explaining this were social attitudes and women's lack of time due to other duties. Beneficiary participation in project activities · Factors constraining community participation is best promoted by assigning full time staff to included: multidisciplinary teams. In Guyana, for example, - lackoftransparencyandaccountability(54percent a multidisciplinary team is able to integrate of projects); services needed by the community, while - domination of the committee by one or two continuity is ensured by having the same team individuals or an NGO (16.7 percent); - otheragenciesdoingthework,thecommitteebeing appraise, supervise and evaluate a microproject. ornamental (7.5%); - contracting builders from outside rather than The Microproject Cycle within the project area. At every stage of the microproject cycle, strategiescanbeemployedtoenhanceparticipation. · Mobilization was constrained by suspected misuse For example, in the identification of target groups, of funds and materials. participatory data collection techniques (including · In three projects, donor funds discouraged cash and beneficiary assessment and participatory rural labor contributions as it was felt that donor funding appraisal) have been used to enable communities was sufficient and that sacrifices should not be made by the poverty stricken community. themselves to identify the neediest. The findings of this assessment led to specific Piloting can help point to adjustments needed recommendations and actions to improve fund administration and enhance community participation. in promotional strategies. In Ethiopia, it was Actions included: improvements in accountability learned in the pilot phase that cultural and time procedures; development of a bookkeeping module for constraints and illiteracy had prevented women's the project committee training manual; confirmation of groups from submitting proposals; as a result, in community cash and kind contributions as mandatory the next phase of the fund, promotional activities conditions for MPU support; strengthening of regional offices to speed communication and disbursement; will target more women's groups, and preference simplification of application forms; and initiation of will be given to females in hiring community project launch workshops in communities to ensure organizers. information dissemination. Clear and well publicized microproject highlight where training is needed for capacity selection criteria which "measure" participation building. In addition, assessment after the fact can be used to signal to all stakeholders the fund's during impact assessment studies or annual and commitment to beneficiary participation. Such an midterm evaluations is designed to yield lessons approach, prioritizing microproject selection for future fund strategy and mechanisms. according to intensity of participation, is planned in the Gambia. The capacity of community organizations may be assessed as early as the targeting stage, When beneficiaries, especially marginalized as in Bolivia; more often this is done at the time groups, are to take responsibility for preparing of microproject appraisal. Providing training for projects, documents can be simplified and funding community organizations can empower provided for technical assistance to help beneficiaries to identify and prioritize their needs community groups prepare proposals and carry and to develop strategies to meet them. The key out technical feasibility studies. In addition to to such training is to make it community centered training, one of the ways to prepare beneficiaries rather than project centered, avoiding a top-down, for a role in microproject implementation or expert approach and respecting indigenous supervisionistoensurethattheyareinvolvedfrom knowledge. the earliest stages of the microproject cycle, enabling them to learn about the technical aspects of the project. In particular, project design needs to take account of the technical capabilities of the Box 4 community. Characteristics of Intermediaries that Successfully Support Participation Various approaches have been used by · Participation is an institutional objective. managers both to monitor and evaluate microprojects in a participatory manner and to · Field presence. monitor participation itself. The Zambia Social Recovery Fund has conducted three beneficiary · Staff incentives and training which support participation. assessments to date (Box 3), using participatory research tools to gather qualitative and · Iterative planning in consultation with local quantitative data. The beneficiary assessment can communities. be integrated as a permanent mechanism by, for example, assessing ten percent of completed · Bottom-up accountability mechanisms. microprojects every year. In Guatemala, annual · Contribution of cash, labor, raw material or local monitoring procedures stipulate that interviews facilities by local communities which makes the be carried out in communities which have not communities clients of the intermediary. submitted proposals as well as those which have, · Horizontal and vertical linkages to other institutions. in order to identify problems in communicating fund goals, and to ascertain how and by whom · The agency has prior experience in the community decisions are reached. where the microproject is to be implemented and is aware of local conditions. Intermediary and Community Organizations · The community/beneficiaries have a positive Because of the important roles delegated to perception of the agency. intermediary organizations, it is becoming common to allocate resources at the initial stages · The agency and its personnel have keen understanding of a social fund for assessing and strengthening of and sensitivity to issues concerning women and their capacities--in terms of both development minorities and towards the environment. effectiveness and beneficiary representation. · The philosophy of the agency on community Implementing agencies are evaluated during participation is reflected in other microprojects it has regular appraisal of a microproject, on the basis undertaken, and the strategy for participation in the of selection criteria (Box 4) which also serve to present proposal is in line with the fund's strategy.