The terms ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ are often used imprecisely and without clearly differentiating them from inequality or poverty. This report develops a comprehensive framework for understanding inclusion, arguing that inclusion has both intrinsic and instrumental value and is manifested through opportunities to take part in society through markets, services, and spaces. It discusses how countries have practiced social inclusion, highlights the importance of dignity alongside opportunity and ability, and presents options to help policymakers address issues of inclusion and exclusion.
Key findings:
- Inclusion has both intrinsic and instrumental value: it is integral to human well-being and social justice, but it also matters because the exclusion of individuals and groups has substantial social, political, and economic costs.
- Exclusion can take place through practices and processes that are embedded in norms and values, restricting people’s access to markets, services, and spaces. Inclusion in these three interrelated domains can be wrought by enhancing abilities, opportunities, and dignity of disadvantaged individuals and groups.
- No single set of policies or programs can be classified as “social inclusion” policies or programs. Depending on the “wrong” that needs to be addressed, or the “right” that needs to be deepened, a range of interventions could be used.
- Many societies have been and will continue to be reshaped by profound transformations, such as changing age structures and the influx and outflow of migrants. These transitions can lead to new forms of exclusion, but they can also create new opportunities for inclusion. They often have an effect on attitudes and perceptions, which in turn affect the way people act and feel.
- Feelings of being included and respected by others, or being heard by the state, are central to shaping people’s abilities, their sense of dignity, the opportunities they access, how they take part in society, and how state responds to them.
Key recommendations:
- It is important for practitioners and researchers to use the term social inclusion with careful attention to meaning and boundaries. If indeed social inclusion is the overreaching goal of a policy, programme, or project, the expectation should be that processes, practices, stereotypes, attitudes, perceptions, and behaviours that produce exclusion are given due attention.
- The fact that subjective reports can be important drivers of success or failure is not generally recognised in the design and implementation of policies and programmes. Public opinions and perceptions can, when combined with objective indicators, be a good proxy for the performance of a project or programme.
- The report highlights the gaps in the understanding of social inclusion and brings new ideas, such as the importance of dignity, into the mainstream discourse of the World Bank Group. There is much more work to be done to understand how ideas of dignity and respect, for instance, play out in improving outcomes for excluded groups in markets, services, and spaces.
- Additional work on measuring social inclusion is needed.
- “Asking why” is important to understand why poor outcomes continue to persist for some groups. Practitioners may be using blunt instruments to tackle difficult issues if they do not undertake good ex ante analysis of the problem. There are a number of ways by which such analysis can take place. Mixed methods are important, as is hearing the voices of people who have poor outcomes or who are at risk of being excluded.
- Monitoring change toward social inclusion requires innovation, such as the creative use of information and communications technology, third-party monitoring, grievance redress, and feedback from programme participants.
