*These five principles will ensure best results if applied jointly and in sequence. If not possible to apply all 5 principles, project teams are advised to use the World Bank Social Inclusion Assessment Tool (SiAT) to address social inclusion and gender equality issues
Measure impact for excluded groups.
What gets measured gets done. Oftentimes, the gender equality and social inclusion components of projects are not reflected in the project results framework, or are limited to counting the number of women beneficiaries, or women participants in events. A more meaningful way to measure impact for excluded groups can disaggregate beyond gender - e.g. measure to what extent project benefits are enjoyed by groups who are at risk of exclusion in the project context (such as ethnic or religious minorities, persons with disabilities, youth)
The indicators measuring project’s success can be co-designed with the beneficiaries of the project, to better identify what kind of impact is most meaningful for beneficiaries. Indicators can also seek to capture qualitative aspects - e.g. number of beneficiaries who are satisfied with the services provided, in addition to number of beneficiaries who have been delivered services. A consultative process involving all stakeholders, including especially those traditionally excluded, is an important starting point.
Successful M&E can only be done if it is planned for from the design stage of a project. Guidelines for socially inclusive M&E are still rare exist - such as this World Vision toolkit .
Applying the step
A socially inclusive M&E plan includes collecting gender disaggregated data on the pre-project baseline, so that at the end of the project, progress can be measured in a disaggregated manner, on relevant increases in access, knowledge, attitude and skills etc. If the indicators are qualitative, we can then also evaluate not only how many individuals were reached by the project interventions, but also how many were actually empowered and whether the project managed to transform gender relations by changing attitudes of the broader community.
A set of 32 possible gender and social inclusion indicators have been proposed to help teams design their M&E frameworks.
Trade-offs
With any of the 5 five steps for promoting social inclusion in SIL, the main trade off is the resource cost of the activity. The resource cost includes allocation of qualified staff, time to carry out the exercises at the right moment in the project cycle, and material resources needed for completing the activities in each of the 5 steps.
While there may be a pushback about the cost of this work, it is important to remember that the cost of not doing this work - that is - the cost of inequality and social exclusion for broader society is much more substantial, encompassing economic, social, and psychological dimensions. Economically, it results in reduced workforce participation, lower tax revenues, and increased public expenditure on welfare and healthcare. Socially, it leads to higher crime rates, health inequities, and educational disparities, undermining social cohesion and trust. Psychologically, it exacerbates mental health issues and erodes social capital, perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality across generations. Ultimately, this hampers societal stability, equity, and overall prosperity.
A particular challenge with this step relates to the ability of a project to commit to doing a baseline study at the start, to have a set of data with which the end results can be compared. Furthermore, for proper understanding of the project impact, a follow-up studies a few months/years after completion would be necessary. This needs to be worked into a long-term strategy for both projects and institutions involved.