Community-driven development (CDD)interventions rest on the principle of empoweringcommunities. Yet, the gender-specific impacts of CDD,especially on empowerment, have not received due attentionin evaluation and, more generally, in the theoretical andempirical literature. This report explores evidence of howthe CDD approach can create and enhance participation anddecision making when women, as well as men, are to beincluded in the “community” voice and choice. It reviews thetheoretical and empirical literature and analyzes WorldBank–supported CDD projects. Its intent is to helppractitioners who implement CDD interventions moreexplicitly define, discuss, and integrate gender-relevantelements in the design of CDD projects; be more effective inimplementing and monitoring features that may affect men andwomen differently; and identify meaningful indicators andinformation to assess gender impacts. Findings of thisreport include: i) it is important to bring it outempowerment explicitly in the results chain of the project;ii) the design of CDD projects could benefit from beinginformed by gender-specific needs assessments to identifythe constraints that women face in the rural space; iii) Itis useful to think of empowerment along the three categoriesof economic, political, and social empowerment to identifythe mechanisms CDD interventions can leverage, and toidentify direct and indirect effects; iv) the importance ofdefining in CDD projects which dimensions can be affected,through which channels, and how these effects can bemeasured; v) participation needs to be measured in acomprehensive way by the use of multiple indicators; vi) CDDinterventions should better frame what they can impact bothin the short and the long term, and vii) the learningpotential of what works to increase women’s empowerment canbe improved through more systematic assessment, reportingand evaluation.
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