Publication: Do Community-Driven Development Projects Enhance Social Capital? Evidence from the Philippines
Loading...
Published
2008-07
ISSN
Date
2012-05-31
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This paper explores the social capital impacts of a large-scale, community-driven development project in the Philippines in which communities competed for block grants for infrastructure investment. The analysis uses a unique data set of about 2,100 households collected before the project started (2003) and after one cycle of sub-project implementation (2006) in 66 treatment and 69 matched control communities. Participation in village assemblies, the frequency with which local officials meet with residents and trust towards strangers increased as a result of the project. However, there is a decline in group membership and participation in informal collective action activities. This may have been because households were time-constrained, so that in order to participate in project activities, they needed to temporarily reduce their participation in informal activities. An alternative explanation is that the project improved the efficiency of formal forms of social capital and thus households needed to rely less on informal forms. Finally, the results indicate that, in the short run, the project might have reduced the number of other investments.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Labonne, Julien; Chase, Robert S.. 2008. Do Community-Driven Development Projects Enhance Social Capital? Evidence from the Philippines. Policy Research Working Paper; No. 4678. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6823 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Publication Gender Gaps in the Performance of Small Firms: Evidence from Urban Peru(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-09-23)This paper estimates the gender gap in the performance of firms in Peru using representative data on both formal and informal firms. On average, informal female-led firms have lower sales, labor productivity, and profits compared to their male-led counterparts, with differences more pronounced when controlling for observable determinants of firm performance. However, gender gaps are only significant at the bottom of the performance distribution of informal firms, and these gaps disappear at the top of the distribution of informal firms and for formal firms. Possible explanations for the performance gaps at the bottom of the distribution include the higher likelihood of small, female-led firms being home-based, which is linked to lower profits, and their concentration in less profitable sectors. The paper provides suggestive evidence that household responsibilities play a key role in explaining the gender gap in firm performance among informal firms. Therefore, policies that promote access to care services or foster a more equal distribution of household activities may reduce gender productivity gaps and allow for a more efficient allocation of resources.Publication Global Poverty Revisited Using 2021 PPPs and New Data on Consumption(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-05)Recent improvements in survey methodologies have increased measured consumption in many low- and lower-middle-income countries that now collect a more comprehensive measure of household consumption. Faced with such methodological changes, countries have frequently revised upward their national poverty lines to make them appropriate for the new measures of consumption. This in turn affects the World Bank’s global poverty lines when they are periodically revised. The international poverty line, which is based on the typical poverty line in low-income countries, increases by around 40 percent to $3.00 when the more recent national poverty lines as well as the 2021 purchasing power parities are incorporated. The net impact of the changes in international prices, the poverty line, and new survey data (including new data for India) is an increase in global extreme poverty by some 125 million people in 2022, and a significant shift of poverty away from South Asia and toward Sub-Saharan Africa. The changes at higher poverty lines, which are more relevant to middle-income countries, are mixed.Publication Intergenerational Income Mobility around the World(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-09)This paper introduces a new global database with estimates of intergenerational income mobility for 87 countries, covering 84 percent of the world’s population. This marks a notable expansion of the cross-country evidence base on income mobility, particularly among low- and middle-income countries. The estimates indicate that the negative association between income mobility and inequality (known as the Great Gatsby Curve) continues to hold across this wider range of countries. The database also reveals a positive association between income mobility and national income per capita, suggesting that countries achieve higher levels of intergenerational mobility as they grow richer.Publication The Macroeconomic Implications of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Options(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-05-29)Estimating the macroeconomic implications of climate change impacts and adaptation options is a topic of intense research. This paper presents a framework in the World Bank's macrostructural model to assess climate-related damages. This approach has been used in many Country Climate and Development Reports, a World Bank diagnostic that identifies priorities to ensure continued development in spite of climate change and climate policy objectives. The methodology captures a set of impact channels through which climate change affects the economy by (1) connecting a set of biophysical models to the macroeconomic model and (2) exploring a set of development and climate scenarios. The paper summarizes the results for five countries, highlighting the sources and magnitudes of their vulnerability --- with estimated gross domestic product losses in 2050 exceeding 10 percent of gross domestic product in some countries and scenarios, although only a small set of impact channels is included. The paper also presents estimates of the macroeconomic gains from sector-level adaptation interventions, considering their upfront costs and avoided climate impacts and finding significant net gross domestic product gains from adaptation opportunities identified in the Country Climate and Development Reports. Finally, the paper discusses the limits of current modeling approaches, and their complementarity with empirical approaches based on historical data series. The integrated modeling approach proposed in this paper can inform policymakers as they make proactive decisions on climate change adaptation and resilience.Publication The Impact of Atlantic Hurricanes on Business Activity(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-09-22)This paper quantifies the short-run economic impact of 21 Atlantic hurricanes on U.S. local business activity from 2017 to 2024 using anonymized Mastercard transaction data aggregated by ZIP code. On average, hurricanes reduce merchant sales by 12.4 percent during the preparation, impact, and recovery phases—an estimated US$1.38 billion in lost revenue per storm. Substitution in spending across nearby areas or large online platforms is limited, indicating widespread local consumption declines. Economic disruption varies more by industry than storm intensity, with independent stores hit harder than chains. Local businesses with larger online presence face smaller, shorter sales declines, showing greater resilience.
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Community-Driven Approaches in Lao PDR : Moving Beyond Service Delivery, Volume 2. Main Report(Washington, DC, 2008-04)This report reviews Community Driven Development (CDD) projects in Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) to determine their effectiveness in channeling resources to communities for poverty reduction. The study examines three CDD projects in depth: the Poverty Reduction Fund, the Village Investment for the Poor (both supported by the World Bank), and the Government-financed Village Development Fund. Through close analysis of these projects and cursory analysis of other CDD projects, the report concludes that overall, the CDD approach in Lao PDR improves the well-being of communities in a cost-effective manner. The study, however, identifies three challenges that remain for CDD projects to be wholly successful. The first challenge is a call for harmonization of CDD mechanisms within the country. CDD approaches are not currently coordinated geographically, technically, or financially. This leaves communities who need help without resources, an excess of skills in some areas and a dearth of skills in others, and funding allocated towards operations, which could be redirected to communities. The report recommends coordinating and consolidating CDD approaches. The second challenge is the achievement of inclusive participation. While empowerment has proven to improve the well-being of communities, not all local officials recognize the benefits of a participatory approach. The report recommends operating in districts on a long-term basis to develop sustained empowerment and extensive training to local officials and communities on participatory approaches. The final challenge for CDD projects is the funding of livelihood activities, which is necessary for sustained poverty reduction. Evidence has demonstrated that CDD backing of livelihood activities through loans, however, is unsuccessful. The report recommends administering grants for livelihood activities and ensuring technical support along with a participatory approach.Publication Community-Driven Approaches in Lao PDR : Moving Beyond Service Delivery - Summary Overview(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-10)This report reviews Community Driven Development (CDD) projects in Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) to determine their effectiveness in channeling resources to communities for poverty reduction. The study examines three CDD projects in depth: the Poverty Reduction Fund, the Village Investment for the Poor (both supported by the World Bank), and the Government-financed Village Development Fund. Through close analysis of these projects and cursory analysis of other CDD projects, the report concludes that overall, the CDD approach in Lao PDR improves the well-being of communities in a cost-effective manner. The study, however, identifies three challenges that remain for CDD projects to be wholly successful. The first challenge is a call for harmonization of CDD mechanisms within the country. CDD approaches are not currently coordinated geographically, technically, or financially. This leaves communities who need help without resources, an excess of skills in some areas and a dearth of skills in others, and funding allocated towards operations, which could be redirected to communities. The report recommends coordinating and consolidating CDD approaches. The second challenge is the achievement of inclusive participation. While empowerment has proven to improve the well-being of communities, not all local officials recognize the benefits of a participatory approach. The report recommends operating in districts on a long-term basis to develop sustained empowerment and extensive training to local officials and communities on participatory approaches. The final challenge for CDD projects is the funding of livelihood activities, which is necessary for sustained poverty reduction. Evidence has demonstrated that CDD backing of livelihood activities through loans, however, is unsuccessful. The report recommends administering grants for livelihood activities and ensuring technical support along with a participatory approach.Publication Adapting Community Driven Approaches for Post-Disaster Recovery : Experiences from Indonesia(World Bank, Jakarta, 2012-12)The Multi Donor Fund for Aceh and Nias (MDF) and the Java Reconstruction Fund (JRF) have played significant roles in the remarkable recovery of Aceh, Nias and Java, following some of the worst disasters in Indonesia in recent years. The MDF and the JRF, which is patterned after it, are each considered a highly successful model for post-disaster reconstruction. This paper presents the lessons from the MDF and JRF's use of large-scale, government-implemented community driven development programs to deliver reconstruction at the village level in Aceh, Nias and Java. It documents how local level recovery using a community driven approach can result in not only cost effective physical outputs, but also empowered communities with greater capacities and more prepared to face future disasters. The MDF and JRF experiences have demonstrated many less tangible social benefits. These include faster social recovery from the impact of disasters and increased confidence and capacities of local actors to engage in local level planning. Most importantly, the community driven approach to reconstruction empowers victims of natural disaster to become key agents in their own recovery.Publication Scaling up Local and Community Driven Development(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-02)Local and Community Driven Development (LCDD) is an approach that gives control of development decisions and resources to community groups and representative local governments. Poor communities receive funds, decide on their use, plan and execute the chosen local projects, and monitor the provision of services that result from it. It improves not just incomes but people's empowerment and governance capacity, the lack of which is a form of poverty as well. LCDD operations have demonstrated effectiveness at delivering results and have received substantial support from the World Bank. Since the start of this decade, our lending for LCDD has averaged around US$2 billion per year. Through its support to local and community-driven programs, the Bank has financed services such as water supply and sanitation, health services, schools that are tailored to community needs and likely to be maintained and sustainable, nutrition programs for mothers and infants, the building of rural access roads, and support for livelihoods and micro enterprise. This eBook brings together the thoughts and experiences of many of the leading proponents and practitioners of LCDD, a phrase that evolved from Community-Driven Development, and most clearly describes the process of empowering communities and their local governments so they drive economic and social development upwards and outwards. This, too many, appears as a new paradigm, though it has actually evolved over the decades, since it emerged from India in the 1950s. While many LCDD projects have taken root, the key challenge now is how such islands of success, that is, the discrete LCDD projects, can be scaled up into sustainable national programs that build skills in decision-making, management, and governance.Publication Institutional Landscape for Implementation and Financing of Social Protection Programs(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-07-07)Defining appropriate institutional and financing arrangements is crucial to achieve sustainable social protection in Myanmar. This will require setting up overarching coordination mechanisms, with strong political leadership at the union level complemented by a more prominent role for region/state governments and local-level structures in social protection programming, financing, and delivery. This will lead to an effective and sustainable social protection system that addresses local priorities and increases accountability to citizens.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication The Journey Ahead(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-31)The Journey Ahead: Supporting Successful Migration in Europe and Central Asia provides an in-depth analysis of international migration in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) and the implications for policy making. By identifying challenges and opportunities associated with migration in the region, it aims to inform a more nuanced, evidencebased debate on the costs and benefits of cross-border mobility. Using data-driven insights and new analysis, the report shows that migration has been an engine of prosperity and has helped address some of ECA’s demographic and socioeconomic disparities. Yet, migration’s full economic potential remains untapped. The report identifies multiple barriers keeping migration from achieving its full potential. Crucially, it argues that policies in both origin and destination countries can help maximize the development impacts of migration and effectively manage the economic, social, and political costs. Drawing from a wide range of literature, country experiences, and novel analysis, The Journey Ahead presents actionable policy options to enhance the benefits of migration for destination and origin countries and migrants themselves. Some measures can be taken unilaterally by countries, whereas others require close bilateral or regional coordination. The recommendations are tailored to different types of migration— forced displacement as well as high-skilled and low-skilled economic migration—and from the perspectives of both sending and receiving countries. This report serves as a comprehensive resource for governments, development partners, and other stakeholders throughout Europe and Central Asia, where the richness and diversity of migration experiences provide valuable insights for policy makers in other regions of the world.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.