This paper draws on first-hand experience with the Yemen Social Fund for Development (SFD) and on a review of results from rigorous impact evaluations to examine the four factors behind SFD’s success in delivering good aid in hard places. The factors include: 1) stakeholder ownership over projects due to its close work relationship with local communities following a demand-driven approach; 2) trust based on its political neutrality in allocating resources; 3) flexibility due to its mode of project funding and operations; and 4) relevance of SFD interventions for beneficiaries who in reciprocity provide strong support to its programmes.
The paper uses SFD’s major mixed methods evaluations which include three consecutive studies conducted in 2003, 2006, and 2009 visiting the same communities in addition to two consecutive institutional assessments. The paper also reviews SFD documents as well as aide memoires and case studies produced by SFD’s donors. The paper reviews literature on social funds from the Independent Evaluation Unit of the World Bank and from reports of the World Bank’s Social Protection Group. The paper also draws on 16 years plus of first-hand experience with the SFD.
Key Findings:
- SFD’s success, resilience, and effectiveness is in large part attributed to its direct relationship with communities, political neutrality, flexible mode of project funding and operations, and the importance of its interventions to beneficiaries. The SFD’s efforts have proved to be scalable within Yemen.
- SFD is cost effective and benefits the poorer households the most. The households participating are consulted as to their priorities. SFD increased school enrolment, particularly amongst rural girls. SDF interventions improved access to health care. It has had less of an impact on access to water. SFD’s village access roads provided steady benefits. SDF introduced microfinance to Yemen and borrowers have increased every year. A Labour-Intensive Works Programme (LIWP) meant beneficiaries had higher food consumption, more debt repayment, and greater durable goods ownership. SDF provided institutional strengthening and made considerable progress in aligning its activities with those of sectoral ministries and in contributing to the development of national strategies rather than continuing to pursue its own separate approach. SDT works transparently.
- The four factors that have enabled SFD to effectively implement these development interventions include: 1) Ownership: a demand-driven approach allows the establishment of direct links with communities and to create community ownership of SFD projects; 2) Trust: SFD’s political neutrality has been established through objective and transparent resource allocation procedures. Such neutrality granted SFD the trust of populations and access to the most difficult places in spite of insecurity; 3) Flexibility: A flexible mode of funding allows SFD to respond to communities changing needs and sustain projects in spite of crisis conditions; 4) Relevance: The quality and importance of its interventions for the lives of beneficiaries has given SFD visibility, recognition, and support among stakeholders, the government, and donors.
Recommendations:
While exporting the Yemen SFD model to other countries is possible, each country will face unique challenges in adopting this model given its particular local social, political, and economic context.
