Social services delivery through community-based projects

The World Bank is financing an increasing number of community-based social services projects. The objective of this paper is to review and categorize the extent, scope and mechanisms of these projects in the current Bank portfolio, and to identify good practices and potential pitfalls. The authors identify 99 projects that finance at least $1.6 billion in social services. While most of the projects surveyed deliver"traditional"services such as nutrition, maternal and child care, and literacy, the scope of many projects has expanded to include newer services such as counseling, home-based care for the elderly and disabled, and early childhood development.