Social assessment (SA) provides aframework for incorporating participation and socialanalysis into the design and delivery of Bank-assistedoperations. Since there are many social variables whichpotentially affect project impacts and success, SAs must beselective and strategic, and focus on issues of operationalrelevance. Prioritizing critical issues, and determining howto address them, requires consultation with stakeholders,and other forms of data collection and analysis. SAs arecarried out in a project context in order to: (a) identifykey stakeholders and establish an appropriate framework fortheir participation in project selection, design,implementation, and monitoring, and evaluation; (b) ensurethat project objectives and incentives for change areacceptable to the range of people intended to benefit, andthat gender, ethnicity and other social differences aretaken into account in project design; (c) assess the socialimpact of investment projects, and where adverse impacts areidentified, determine how they can be avoided, minimized, orsubstantially mitigated; and (d) develop the capacity toenable participation, resolve conflict, permit servicedelivery, and carry out mitigation measures in ways that aresocially sound.