Prosperity from economic growth is notshared evenly among Russia's population and regions.Local communities and rural territories face seriousdevelopment challenges: including poor living conditions,infrastructure, and services and lack of citizens'participation in decision-making processes. The RussianFederation Local Initiatives Support Program (RF LISP) aimsto address community challenges by introducing aparticipatory approach to the development and rehabilitationof local-level social infrastructure. Specifically, LISPchannels funds from regional budgets to financeparticipatory projects in poorer local communities. For theperiod 2009-14, LISP has been implemented in six regions andhas resulted in more than 1,200 projects with over 1 millionbeneficiaries. Key factors for LISP success are thefollowing: (i) mainstreaming of LISP into the nationaladministrative system and budget process, and (ii) providingthe Bank's technical assistance at all stages ofproject implementation to share international experience incommunity-driven development (CDD) projects, and ensuringtransparency and quality of LISP procedures.