NEW FRONTIERS OF SOCIAL POLICY

INCLUSION MATTERS

THE FOUNDATION FOR SHARED PROSPERITY

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NEW FRONTIERS OF SOCIAL POLICY

In many developing countries, the mixed record of state effectiveness, market imperfections, and persistent structural inequities has undermined the effectiveness of social policy. To overcome these constraints, social policy needs to move beyond conventional social service approaches toward development’s goals of equitable opportunity and social justice. This series has been created to promote debate among the development community, policy makers, and academia, and to broaden understanding of social policy challenges in developing country contexts.

The books in the series are linked to the World Bank’s Social Development Strategy. The strategy is aimed at empowering people by transforming institutions to make them more inclusive, responsive, and accountable. This involves the transformation of subjects and beneficiaries into citizens with rights and responsibilities. Themes in this series include equity and development, assets and livelihoods, citizenship and rights-based social policy, and the social dimensions of infrastructure and climate change.

Titles in the series:

• Assets, Livelihoods, and Social Policy

• Building Equality and Opportunity through Social Guarantees: New Approaches to Public Policy and the Realization of Rights

• Delivering Services in Multicultural Societies

• Inclusion Matters: The Foundation for Shared Prosperity

• Inclusive States: Social Policy and Structural Inequalities

• Institutional Pathways to Equity: Addressing Inequality Traps

• Living through Crises: How the Food, Fuel, and Financial Shocks Affect the Poor

• Social Dimensions of Climate Change: Equity and Vulnerability in a Warming World

• Societal Dynamics and Fragility: Engaging Societies in Responding to Fragile Situations

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

In every country, certain groups—whether illegal immigrants, indigenous people, or other minorities—confront barriers that prevent them from fully participating in their nation’s political, economic, and social life. These groups are branded by stereotypes, stigmas, and superstitions. They often live with insecurity. And such disadvantages not only preclude them from capitalizing on opportunities to lead a better life, they also rob them of dignity.

In many countries, excluded people have organized to right a lifetime of wrongs. These newly active citizens include victims of violence who are demanding justice, or members of growing middle classes demanding greater voice in their countries’ political processes. They come armed or simply angry, protesting in Brazil or India, and occupying Wall Street or Tahrir Square. Taken together, their outrage demonstrates a global crisis of inclusion.

At the World Bank Group, we have realized that confronting the need for social inclusion will prove vital if we are to meet our goal of building shared prosperity for all people. While great strides have been made in reducing extreme poverty, in country after country, groups remain excluded from development gains. A rising tide does not necessarily lift all boats.

Acknowledging this, in May 2013, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda called for designing development goals that focus on reaching excluded groups. Leave no one behind, they urged the Secretary-General, adding, We should ensure that no person—regardless of ethnicity, gender, geography, disability, race, or status—is denied universal human rights and basic economic opportunities.

Including the excluded is a complex challenge. At the World Bank Group, we begin where we always do: by surveying, sifting, and analyzing the evidence. The result of that work is this evidence-based study of social inclusion. It is the first of its kind for the Bank Group. We believe it represents one of the most comprehensive reviews of social inclusion available. While more work is needed, our research allows us to say a few things with confidence:

Ostracized groups exist in all countries, rich and poor, democratic and not. They are often hidden from public censuses, made invisible by their fear of reprisal. Still, they can be found. In Vietnam, for example, where poverty reduction has been impressive, indigenous people are less likely to be covered by health programs or receive essential vaccinations. In the United States, African Americans were twice as likely as whites to be unemployed during the recent financial crisis. In Bolivia, ethnic minority Quechua-speaking women are 28 percentage points less likely to complete secondary school than Spanish-speaking Bolivian men.

Excluded groups are denied opportunities. Excluded groups are significantly less likely to receive the benefits of development investments. In Uganda, for example, where electricity coverage is low, almost half of respondents from the Buganda group reported having electricity, compared to less than 5 percent of the minority Lugbara and Ngakaramajong populations. The same breakdown appears in terms of access to clean water. Some excluded groups have been denied opportunities for hundreds of years, such as Native Americans in the United States.

Poverty and exclusion are not the same. In some societies, even the rich can be excluded, as might be the case with wealthy homosexual men in some African countries. The protest movements in the Middle East have been fueled in part by demands among middle-class citizens for greater inclusion in public decision making and accountability from political leaders.

Exclusion is costly. Measuring the cost of exclusion has methodological challenges, but the costs—whether social, political, or economic—are likely to be substantial. Occupational segregation can restrict the free movement of talent and resources, resulting in productivity losses to an entire economy. One study found that exclusion of the ethnic minority Roma cost Romania 887 million euros in lost productivity. Studies in Bolivia estimate that ethnic exclusion reduces agricultural productivity by up to 36 percent.

Most importantly, we find abundant evidence that inclusion can be planned and achieved. Education represents an unparalleled agent for stimulating inclusion. Religious leaders and other champions of change can help excluded groups acquire voice and confidence. The march towards greater inclusion, however, is not linear. Expanding the rights of formerly oppressed people risks triggering a backlash from historically dominant groups, who see their interests threatened. The process of fostering inclusion is incremental. It requires time and unwavering commitment. Still, the benefits of persistently striving for inclusion are at once striking and numerous. Examples can be seen around the world, from the overthrow of apartheid in South Africa, to China’s outlawing of foot binding, to the growing support that Brazilian police now provide to victims of rape. Exclusion is far from immutable.

Solving the problem of social exclusion is urgent. Tensions are rising around the world, due to demographic shifts, migration, food price shocks, and economic volatility. People fleeing war and extreme poverty often become the most excluded groups in host countries. In the future, moreover, climate change will likely result in mass migrations, as cities and countries confront extreme drought, storms, heat waves, and sea-level rise. Longstanding prejudices may result in excluded groups receiving blame for growing societal tension and competition for resources.

To move ahead wisely, we need a clear research agenda. We need better tools to measure the costs of exclusion and for diagnosing its root causes. We must also develop more sophisticated analyses of which strategies are most likely to foster social inclusion, and mechanisms for gauging when inclusion efforts are working and when they are not.

We offer this report with the hope that it will stimulate research, action, and a broader debate on social inclusion. Increased understanding of this crucial topic will strengthen efforts to deliver better results for the world’s poor, and help achieve our shared goals of ending extreme poverty and building shared prosperity for all people.

Jim Yong Kim

President

The World Bank Group

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This report was prepared by a team led by Maitreyi Bordia Das, Social Development Department (SDV), under the guidance of Rachel Kyte, Vice President of the Sustainable Development Network (SDN) and Cyprian Fisiy, Director of the Social Development Department (SDV).

The core team comprised Sabina Espinoza, Gillette Hall, Soumya Kapoor-Mehta, Kamila Kasprzycka, Maria Beatriz Orlando, Juan Carlos Parra Osorio, Maira Emy Reimão, Lisa Schmidt, Sonya Sultan, Emcet Oktay Taş, and Ieva Žumbytė. In addition, Sabina Espinoza, Soumya Kapoor-Mehta, and Emcet Oktay Taş were part of the main writing team. Special thanks are due to Elizabeth Acul, Colum Garrity, Kyung Min In, Nona (Anju) Sachdeva, Syed Abdul Salam and Cristy Tumale from SDV for their outstanding support.

Background inputs were prepared by Taaka Awori (independent consultant), Sabina Espinoza, Patricia Fernandes, Roberto Foa (Harvard University), Rasmus Heltberg, Surinder Jodhka (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), Soumya Kapoor-Mehta, Kamila Kasprzycka, Sadaf Lakhani, Rachel Marcus (independent consultant), Roberto Miranda (Inter-American Development Bank), Simon O’Meally, Maria Beatriz Orlando, Juan Carlos Parra Osorio, Beata Plonka (independent consultant), Graeme Ramshaw (independent consultant), Maira Emy Reimão, Audrey Sacks, Lisa Schmidt, Hilary Silver (Brown University), Li Shi (Beijing Normal University), Sonya Sultan, Emcet Oktay Taş, Francesco di Villarosa (independent consultant), Maria Cecilia Villegas, Xiaolin Wang (International Poverty Reduction Center in China), and Ieva Žumbytė.

The team would like to thank peer reviewers Dan Banik (University of Oslo and China Agricultural University), Francisco Ferreira, Arjan de Haan (International Development Research Centre, Canada), Jesko Hentschel, Andrew Norton (Overseas Development Institute), Dena Ringold, and Carolyn Turk for their insightful comments and for participating in the review meetings. Marianne Fay (Chief Economist, SDN), Elisabeth Huybens (Sector Manager, SDV when this report was conceived; now Sector Manager, Social Development, Europe and Central Asia Region) and Susan Wong (Sector Manager, SDV) also provided valuable comments and guidance.

Constructive comments were received at various stages of the review process from Motoko Aizawa, Beatrix Allah-Mensah, Ian Bannon, Kaushik Basu, Tara Beteille, Ana Maria Muñoz Boudet, Franck Bousquet, Charles Cormier, Maria Correia, Alberto Coelho Gomes Costa, Anis Dani, Pyush Dogra, Mariana Felicio, Varun Gauri, Elena Glinskaya, Helene Grandvoinnet, Asli Gurkan, Sara Gustafsson, Bernard Harborne, Karla Hoff, Naila Kabeer (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), Sarah Keener, Jeni Klugman, Markus Kostner, Paul Kriss, Angela Nyawira Khaminwa, Andrea Liverani, Alexandre Marc, Robin Mearns, Bala Menon, Sarah Michael, Ambar Narayan, Deepa Narayan (international advisor), Claudia Nassif, Sarah Nedolast, John Newman, Clarence Tsimpo Nkengne, Asta Olesen, Pedro Olinto, Mario Picon, Hans-Otto Sano, Rodrigo Serrano, Ulrich Schmidt, Jordan Schwartz, Sudhir Shetty, Iain Shuker, Varun Singh, Emmanuel Skoufias, Rob Swinkels, Sarah Twigg, Paolo Verme, Varalakshmi Verumu, Chaogang Wang, Gregor Wolf and Michael Woolcock.

The Social Development Sector Board helped to refine many of the ideas in this report. Discussions with Junaid Ahmad, Mariana Cavalcanti (Getúlio Vargas Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), He Hsiaojun (International Poverty Reduction Center in China), Ricardo Paes de Barros (Secretariat of Strategic Affairs of the Presidency of Brazil), Dewen Wang, and Xiaoqing Yu helped in crafting the story line. Early findings of the report were presented at meetings and seminars organized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC), Institute for Studies on Labor and Society (IETS), and Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and participants provided valuable inputs.

The report drew upon a range of operational and analytical engagements that were supported by staff based in the World Bank country offices of Afghanistan, Brazil, China, Ghana, Poland, and Uganda. The support from the Nordic Trust Fund (NTF) and the Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA-MDTF) is gratefully acknowledged.

Finally, Fionna Douglas, Hendrik Barkeling, Doreen Kibuka-Musoke, and Ewa Sobczynska provided valuable support and advice. Bruce Ross-Larson facilitated a writers’ workshop and Dick Thompson provided editorial support for the overview.

ABBREVIATIONS

Social Inclusion

• The process of improving the terms for individuals and groups to take part in society

• The process of improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of people, disadvantaged on the basis of their identity, to take part in society

Overview

The World Bank Group’s focus on social inclusion began with the observation that even within countries, development investments produced unequal benefits. Further assessments revealed that groups with certain distinguishing characteristics consistently failed to benefit from a nation’s progress. These groups were among the poorest in a nation, but they were not consistently the poorest. They were often, but not always, minorities. What set them apart was that they were members of excluded groups—indigenous people, new immigrants, people with disabilities, people with different skin tones, people who spoke the official language imperfectly. These were people branded by stigmas, stereotypes, and superstitions. They confronted unique barriers that kept them from fully participating in their country’s political and economic life. They were excluded.

One of the world’s greatest development efforts is coming to a close. The year 2015 marks the endpoint for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In assessing the MDG response and charting a course for the next era of development, the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (UN 2013) called for designing development goals that focus on reaching excluded groups. Leave no one behind, it advised. "We should ensure that