Resource information
The idea of social inclusion has
garnered considerable attention, especially in the context
of two recent developments: the Sustainable Development
Goals and the heightened attention to inequality. This paper
reviews the manner and extent to which social inclusion is
addressed in the first 17 Systematic Country Diagnostics
(SCDs), which are ex ante, country-level assessments
conducted by the World Bank Group, ahead of the preparation
of its Country Partnership Frameworks. In addition to this
primary purpose, the paper fulfils three other purposes. It
allows for a broader reflection on the value of the social
inclusion construct in macro-level diagnostics; it takes the
opportunity to develop and refine a methodology to assess
social inclusion and finally, it positions the narrative on
social inclusion into the ongoing discourse on poverty,
shared prosperity, inequality and the thinking around the
implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. It is
therefore, a refined articulation of the idea of social
inclusion in the context of global epistemological shifts
