Ten Consequential and Actionable ‘Social’ Contributions to the Theory, Practice, and Evaluation of Development

Vijayendra Rao and Michael Woolcock

No 11087, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Understandings of what is unique and consequential about ‘social’ development vis-à-vis other sectoral domains have evolved considerably over the past eight decades, with the present articulations enjoying broad acceptance in theory while often being ignored in practice. Although administrative imperatives within large organizations may require social development to have a stand-alone operational portfolio, this paper argues that its impact would be greatly enhanced if its distinctive contributions were incorporated into everyday activity in all development sectors. The paper outlines 10 such actionable ‘social’ contributions, making a case for why and how they matter – intrinsically and instrumentally – across mainstream concerns regarding development processes and outcomes, in poor and rich countries alike.

Date: 2025-03-19
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/0995054 ... 662-7b5276292e71.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11087

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Roula I. Yazigi ().