Social funds (SFs) aim to alleviate poverty by creating and upgrading social and economic infrastructure, promoting income-generating activities, and supporting the development of civil society and social capital. Social Funds also often contribute to employment through social protection interventions, such as public works programs. This note highlights some of the advantages and challenges of public works programs and reviews the experience of social funds in designing and implementing this kind of programs. The note looks at social funds as an implementation mechanism vis-a-vis more traditional models and focuses on the lessons learned from Egypt, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Yemen.