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This article explores the role of social capital in community development by focusing on two South Asian case studies drawn from India and Bangladesh. Both studies recognized social capital as a useful resource, which facilitates social interaction and promotes mutual support and cooperation and thus improves participants’ livelihood through income generation, better community governance and capacity building. An important observation is that social capital yields superior outcome if it is used in line with the local conditions of a given society. The findings suggest lessons for policy planners, donor agencies, development practitioners, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society to use social capital as a resource in order to achieve sustainable community development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]