Sector departments were created as part of a World Bank-wide reorganization in 1972. The sector departments were responsible for: improving and maintaining the quality of Bank lending and related operations through sector policy and guideline development; support and review of operations; recruitment assistance; staff development and training; and liaison with external organizations. Sector departments were generally not responsible for leading project lending operations and member country relations. The Bank's projects and member country relations were instead the responsibility of regional vice presidencies (RVPs). See the related units of description note for more information.

This sector addresses social inclusion in development, focusing on support for disadvantaged and marginalized groups based on age, disabilities, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. It also encompasses functional areas of community development and participation, local governance, civil society and nongovernmental organizationsengagement, post conflict and prevention, and World Bank safeguard policies on resettlement and indigenous peoples.

Functions related to the social development sector were consolidated in a single department in January 1997, with the formation of the Social Development Department (SDV, alternatively referred to as the Social Development Network) within the Vice Presidency for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development (ESSD). However, activities related to the sector were initiated in the early 1970s with the report circulated by the Vice President of Bank Operations, Warren Baum, entitled A Report with Recommendation on the Use of Anthropology in Project Operations in the World Bank Group. This report concluded that there was a need to increase anthropological and sociological input into Bank projects; part of its recommendations included the hiring of eleven anthropologists and sociologists who were to be placed in strategic operational departments. As per its recommendations, social scientists were recruited and placed in various sectoral, regional, and country offices. Michael Cernea, the Bank's first sociologist, was hired by the Rural Development Department in 1974 and Gloria Davis, the Bank's first anthropologist, became a member of the Indonesia Transmigration and Land Settlement Program in 1978. The objective of the Bank's earliest social scientists was towork towards the improvement of development project effectiveness through focus on the promotion and development of tools for social analysis and participation, and the creation of a Bank-wide and external network of colleagues.

In the early 1980s, policies related to resettlement, indigenous people, women, and institutions (specifically related to farmer production systems) were developed and implemented by the Bank. Significantly, in 1984, the Bank adopted an operational manual statement (OMS 2.20, Project Appraisal) that included a section on Sociological Aspects of Project Appraisal. During this time, the social scientists employed by the Bank along with other Bank staff interested in social concerns were linked informally through the Bank Sociological Group, created and led by Michael Cernea. In 1986, Cernea and William L. Partridge presented the first informal review of Bank projects and identified consistent issues with resettlement policy compliance.

The Bank also began prioritizing engagement with NGOs in the early 1980s. In 1983, the NGO-World Bank Committee was established in the International Relations Department (IRD) of the Office of the Vice President, External Relations (VPE). Over the subsequent fourteen years, responsibility for NGO engagement was transferred among several departments including the newly formed International Economics Division (SPRIE) in the Strategic Planning Department in 1987 then returning to the External Relations Department as EXTIE in 1990. In 1993, the function shifted to the Operations Policy Department (OPR) as the International Economic Relations Division (OPRIE) before being integrated into OPR's Policy Group (OPRPG). In 1997, the function was placed in the NGO Division of the new SDV (SDVNG).

Before the SDV, the Environment Department (ENV) in the Vice Presidency, Sector Policy and Research (PRE) along with four regional environment divisions were created in 1987 to oversee environmental measures in Bank projects; both groups later expanded to include socialexpertise. This development was ultimately articulated in the Environment Department's organizational structure when, in 1993, a division for Social Policy and Resettlement (ENVSP) was created with an anthropologist, Gloria Davis, as division chief. The division dealt with resettlement, social dimensions of natural resource management, social assessment, and an emerging social policy agenda. The division was also involved in project appraisal/review and creating reports and policy.

The Bank's role in social development was notably advanced by the 1994 publication of Social Assessment--Incorporating Participation and Social Analysis into the Bank's Operational Work, published by ENVSP (WBG Archives folder number 1454283). The paper brought together social analysis and participatory processes under a single approach and defined the objectives of social assessment as reducing poverty and promoting sustainable development by:

• identifying key stakeholders and establishing an appropriate framework for their participation in project selection, design and implementation;

• ensuring that project objectives and incentives for change are acceptable to the range of people intended to benefit, and that gender and other social differences are reflected in project design;

• assessing the social impact of investment projects, and determining how adverse impacts can be overcome or at least substantially mitigated; and

• evaluating the capacity to enable participation, permit service delivery and carry out mitigationmeasures, and recommending measures to strengthen capacity.

The Bank and, specifically, the ENVSP, published numerous papers, guides, and books throughout the 1990s that helped define the emerging social development sector, provide guidance for Bank lending and operations departments, and influence future policy. The Bankwide review of projects involving involuntary resettlement 1986-1993 was initiated in 1992 and published in 1994 by co-authors Michael M. Cernea and Scott Guggenheim of ENV. This systematic assessment examined how social safeguards were applied and highlighted the advantages of including social factors in high-risk operations.

During President Wolfensohn's tenure (1995 - 2005), collaboration with civil society and NGOs increased significantly. In 1996, President Wolfensohn announced the launch of the World Bank Participation Sourcebook, developed under the direction of ENVSP Division Chief Gloria Davis. The sourcebook served as a practical guide explaining how to involve stakeholders in Bank-supported operations and shared lessons from Bank projects, staff, and government counterparts.

In the same year, President Wolfensohn requested Shahid Javed Burki, vice president of Latin America and Caribbean Region, to chair a task group consisting of economists and social scientists to examine the Bank's social development initiatives and recommend how to apply best practices more systematically across operations. The Social Development Task Group report, Social Development and Results on the Ground, published in 1997 charted a course for moving forward and provided a number of recommendations related to the broader use of participation and social analysis.

In January of 1997, the Social Development Network (SDV) was formed. This took place at the same time as a Bank-wide reorganization of the thematic Vice Presidencies. To facilitate sharing of expertise and knowledge, the Bank established networks that linked Bank-wide communities of staff working in the same field across organizational boundaries and with external partners. The networks formed a virtual overlay on the existing Bank organization, and were intended to link staff working in the same sectors throughout the Bank, whether the staff was located in the Regions, in the central vice presidencies' sectordepartments, or other vice presidencies. Four networks were formed as part of the restructuring: the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Network (ESSD); the Finance, Private Sector Development, and Infrastructure Network (FPD); the Human Development Network (HDN); and the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network (PRM). SDV was placed in the ESSD.

Gloria Davis was named the first director of the SDV that included the NGO Unit (SDVNG) and the Post-Conflict Unit (SDVPC). In addition to the creation of the Department, social development units were established in the Regions and a board of regional representatives was created. The newly formed Social Development Board set as its main objectives:

• establishing the infrastructure through which the network would function;

• integrating and mainstreaming social analysis, participation and gender considerations into lending operations by developing and disseminating procedures for social assessment;

• identifying and addressing key social issues in countries and regions;

• aligning work on social development within the merging business activities of the Bank - especially poverty reduction and private sector development;

• improving research, capacity building and partnerships; and

• delivering several other products and programs identified by the Executive Directors and senior management as having high priority for the Bank: for example, developing a strategy to guide Bank-NGO relations, strengthening the Bank's capacity to deal with post-conflict reconstruction, and supporting a new cultural heritage initiative.

The department had no operational portfolio.

In 2002, EXT partially regained responsibility for liaison with NGOs and international organizations. This was, however, limited to the external aspects of the function; SDVNG maintained responsibility for internal policy and planning work related to liaison. As part of this team-based approach, the two cooperated on activities such as dialogue and consultation, staff training, and knowledge management. By the end of 2002, SDV was not comprised of any divisions, but its functional teams were: Civic Engagement; Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation; Social Capital; Community Driven Development; Social Analysis/Social Policy; and Conflict Prevention and Reconstruction. By the end of 2003, four of the SDV functional teams remained unchanged. The Civic Engagement team was renamed Participation and Civic Engagement and a new functional team responsible for Safeguards, Quality Assurance, and Compliance was established.

In June 2006, President Paul D. Wolfowitz announced the consolidation of the former ESSD and Infrastructure Vice Presidencies into the Sustainable Development Network (SDN) with the objective of mainstreaming environmental issues, improving synergies, better integrating core operations, and strengthening focus on sustainability. SDN was operational on January 1, 2007, and the Social Development Department (acronym SDV unchanged) was moved to the SDN. Along with the Social Development Department, SDN included the following units or departments: Agricultural and Rural Development Department (ARD); Concessional and Sub-National Finance (CSF); Finance, Economics and Urban Development (FEU); Sustainable Energy (SEG); Environment Department (ENV); and Transport, Water, and Information and Communication Technologies (TWI).

SDV offered advisory and operational support, research and innovative thinking in diverse areas at policy, program and project levels. The department provided guidance on social development considerations in both the World Bank's lending and non-lending programs and supplied technical support to ensure social safeguard compliance of World Bank-financed operations. As of 2008, SDV functional teams included: Community Driven Development and Local Governance; Conflict and Social Development; Inclusion and Social Safeguards; and Social Analysis and Policy. By 2010, the teams were: Conflict, Crime and Violence; Governance and Social Accountability; Social Dimensions and Climate Change; Social Sustainability and Safeguards; and Strategy, Gender and Special Initiatives. A major publication from this period, Societal Dynamics and Fragility, issued in 2013, was a comprehensive review of operational uses of social development in fragile and post conflict settings.

On July 1, 2014, a Bank-wide reorganization introduced by President Jim Yong Kim restructured the Bank into fourteen Global Practices (GPs) and five Cross-Cutting Solution Areas (CCSAs). Sector staff from the sector departments such as SDV and regional vice presidencies were relocated to the GPs or CCSAs. The GPs were responsible for each major thematic area, which the Bank supports through projects and functions as a vertical pillar of technical expertise. As a GP located within the Sustainable Development Practice Group (GGSVP), the Social, Urban, Rural, and Resilience Global Practice (SURR GP) was created to address the interconnected challenges of urbanization, ruraldevelopment, social inclusion, and resilience to disasters and climate change.

Responsibilities of SURR GP included:

• defining the strategic direction and the Bank's work in the social, urban, rural, resilience sectors;

• developing and deploying expertise globally;

• delivering comprehensive solutions to client countries through environmentally and socially sustainable approaches and creating and promoting sustainable and inclusive cities; and

• capturing and leveraging knowledge

Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez was appointed senior director of the global practice in 2014. The social development units in the SURR GP were formed as follows: GSU01 AFR 1; GSU02 EAP; GSU03 ECA; GSU04 LAC; GSU05 MNA; GSU06 SAR; GSU07 AFR 2.

Past sector heads or directors were as follows:

1993 - 1994: Mohamed T. El-Ashry (director, Environment Department)

1995 - 1996: Andrew D. Steer (director, Environment Department)

1997 - 2000: Gloria Davis (director, Social Development Department)

2000 - 2008: Steen Lau Jorgensen(director, Social Development Department)

2009 - 2013: Cyprian F. Fisiy (director, Social Development Department)

2014: Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez (senior director, Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice)