Worthy of Continued Support? The Paradox of Community-Driven Development at the World Bank

• DOI: 10.1007/s12116-024-09449-9
• Publication Date: 2024-11-08T14:04:12Z
• Authors: Emmanuelle Poncin
• Keywords: Community Development

Abstract The World Bank’s community-driven development (CDD) interventions have outwardly been presented as powerful instruments of good governance, social cohesion, and empowerment. However, their far-reaching expansion has taken place in the absence conclusive empirical evidence on operations effects. To make sense this paradox at core CDD, paper situates these programs institutional context. It proposes that CDD effectively served imperative to lend. Their supported by an assertive discourse success reform, which further helped confirm identity a “knowledge bank” with expertise. In parallel, mounting CDD’s ineffectiveness terms empowerment, capital largely handled fostering ignorance. Inconvenient findings avoided, stifled, mitigated, or removed from narrative protect promote programs. tensions contradictions occasionally arisen paradox. They assuaged systematically reframing problems shortcomings signals require tailoring, improvement, expansion. so doing, generated momentum for survival, persistence, growth interventions, regardless effects localities experienced them.