A social assessment was done during the preparation of Tajikistan's Pilot Poverty Alleviation Project to answer several key questions: What are the poor people's priority needs and wants? Why are they poor? What are their own strategies for improving their lives? And how can they be helped to...

Zambia's Social Recovery Fund promotes community-driven infrastructure rehabilitation through microprojects aimed at cushioning vulnerable groups against the negative effects of adjustment. The fund was formed in 1991 as part of the Social Recovery Project, which was designed to build the...

Armenia's recent experience underscores the value of using social assessment (SA) in social sector reform projects. The Government of Armenia and the World Bank carried out an SA to evaluate the social and institutional feasibility of the government's proposed education and health sector...

In the Argentina Biodiversity Conservation Project, a social assessment (SA) helped the Government of Argentina/World Bank team develop a cooperative approach to protected areas management. Social analysis and participatory research helped the task team understand the range of potential social...

The purpose of this note is to describe the public consultation program to date for the Nam Theun 2 (NT2) hydroelectric project and share lessons learned regarding the process and methodologies that were used. The Lao PDR is a large, sparsely populated country with rugged terrain, limited...

Consultation is a two-way communication process by which the knowledge and views of affected peoples, NGOs, the private sector and other interested parties are taken into account in development decision-making. In the case of EAs, the assumption is often made that such involvement is not...

Poverty is at the root of the problems facing many public housing projects in the U.K. today. Experience emerging from 100 low-income housing estates echoes findings from urban upgrading for the poor in developing countries. Tackling poverty and unemployment in low income communities cannot be...

A Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA) was undertaken by the World Bank in collaboration with the Government of Kenya to complement previous statistical studies of poverty in Kenya. While the PPA confirmed many findings of the Welfare Monitoring Survey (WMS), it also revealed significant new...

Citizen participation in the decisionmaking and development activities of local government can produce more efficient and effective delivery of services by the public sector. In order to foster participation, some responsibility must be devolved from central to local government. However, the...

Countries in transition from centrally planned to market economies face several challenges when planning investments. These include a lack of information about beneficiary groups, particularly those in rural areas; and the collapse of institutions maintained by the state prior to transition....