Public Lecture: Localising Development - Does Participation Work? (World Bank)

Localizing Development: Does Participation Work?, a new Policy Research Report analysing participatory development efforts, shows that such projects often fail to be sensitive to complex contexts - including social, political, historical and geographical realities - and fall short in terms of monitoring and evaluation systems, which hampers learning. Citing numerous examples, the authors demonstrate that participatory projects are not a substitute for weak states, but instead require strong central support to be effective.

This public lecture was hosted by the IGC and featured, as speakers, Ghazala Mansuri (Lead Economist,World Bank's Poverty Reduction and Equity Group) and Vijayendra Rao (Lead Economist,World Bank's Development Research Group). The discussant was David Mosse (Professor of Social Anthropology, Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the School of Oriental and African Studies) and the chair was Jean-Paul Faguet (Reader, Political Economy of Development, London School of Economics).

A podcast from the event is available for download below.