POLIcy RESEARCH WORKINC, PAIIER 2970

# Abstract

Rao and lbanez develop an evaluation method that combines qualitative evidence with quantitative survey data analyzed with propensity score methods on matched samples to study the impact of a participatory community-driven social fund on preference targeting, collective action, and community decisionmiakiig. The data come from a case stidy of five pairs of comMunities in Jamaica where one commnunity **in** the pair has received funds from the Jamaica social investimient fund USIF) while the other has not-but has been picked to match the funded community in its social and econlomilic characteristics. The qualitative data reveal that the social fund process is elite-driven and decisioninakinig tends to be dominated by a small group of motivated individuals. But by the end of the project there was broad-based satisfaction with the outcome. The quantitative data from 500 househiolds mirror these findings bv showing that ex-ante the social fund does not address the expressed needs of the majority of individuals in the majority of communities. By the end of the construction process, however, 80 percent of the community expressed satisfaction with the outcome. An analysis of the determinants of participation shows that better educated and better networked individuals dominate the process. Propensity score analysis reveals that the JSIF has had a causal impact on improvements in trust and the capacity for collective action, but these gains are greater for elites within the communiity. Both JSIF and non-JSIF communities are more likely now to make decisions that affect their lives which indicates a broad-based effort to promote participatory development in the countrv, but JSIF communiities do not show highier levels of community-driven decisions than non-JSIF communities. The authors slhed light oni the complex ways in which community-driven development works inside commilunities-a process that is deeply imbedded within Jamaica's sociocultural and political context.

This paper-a product of the Poverty Team, Development Research Group-Is part of a larger effort in the group to evaluate community-driven development. Copies of the paper are available free from the World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433. Please contactPatricia Sader, rooml MC3-556,telephone 202-473-3902, fax 202-522-1153, email address psader Cworldbank.org. Policy Research Working Papcrs are also posted on the Web at http://econ.worldbank.org. Vilayendra Rao may be contacted at vrao@R,worldbank.org. February 2003. (56 pages)

> **_The_** _l'ol/cy Research Working Paper Series disscenimiates the_ **_fincdigs_** _of ivork_ **_tin_** _progress to encoutrage the exchange of ideas about developmient issues. An objective if the series is to get the_ **_finditigs_** _out quick/vy even If the presentations are less than_ **_fuills_** _pu/ished. 7be papers carry the_ **_naiines_** _of the authors and sbhoild be cited accordingly. The findtings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed_ **_in_** _this paper are enitirel/ those of the auitbors. They do niot necessaril/ represent the_ **_vieiv_** _of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries tblh represenit._

Produced by the Research Advisory Staff