GSDRC newsfeed on Institutional development

Delivering Services in Multicultural Societies

Alexandre Marc — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How can service delivery policies be designed and implemented so as to recognise and support cultural diversity? This book finds that long-term investment and strategies are needed. Basic principles include the importance of bottom-up and participatory approaches, deep institutional change, and ongoing policy adaptation. Poorly planned and under-resourced interventions can increase social exclusion. Governments should be prepared to meet the additional requirements of capacity building and institutional development.

Capacity and Capacity Development: Coping with Complexity

Derick W. Brinkerhoff with Peter J. Morgan — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

What has been learned about capacity and capacity development (CD), and their relationship to achieving sustainable results? What are the implications for analysis and practice? This introductory article to a symposium on capacity and CD highlights: the benefits of viewing capacity and CD through systems lenses; the salience of politics; and the need for new approaches to the practice of CD. Outsiders may be able to assist in developing capacity, but sustained capacity results when endogenous actor-led processes stimulate the creation and strengthening of five core capabilities.

Mediating Peace in Africa: Securing Conflict Prevention

Salomé van Jaarsveld and Shauna Mottiar — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How can the African Union�s mediation and conflict prevention mechanisms be strengthened? This seminar report assesses the evolving African peace and security architecture and presents five key recommendations for its future development. It argues that the AU�s partnerships should be strengthened, mediation work institutionalised, early warning systems established, lesson-learning institutionalised and that civil society should become more involved in mediation processes.

Finance in Conflict and Reconstruction

Tony Addison, Philippe Le Billon and S. Mansoob Murshed — Mon, 01 Jan 2001 00:00:00 GMT

What role does finance play in war and post-conflict reconstruction? Domestic and foreign finance can determine who wins the war, the duration of the conflict and can contribute to increased post-conflict poverty and inequality. Action to reduce war finance (and to increase its cost) may encourage peace, provided such action is implemented across the international community. Financial liberalisation during reconstruction may foster economic instability and endanger peace. Strong financial regulation and supervision is important.

The Peace and Security Council of the African Union: Evaluating an Embryonic International Institution

Paul D. Williams — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How has the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) helped promote peace, security and stability on the African continent? This article provides an overview of the origin of the PSC, and discusses elements of its design and mandate. Does the PSC have the resources and credibility to influence the continent�s governments? Without significant additional funding and manpower from the AU, the PSC cannot cope with the huge security problems facing Africa.

Introduction: Negotiating Empowerment

Andrea Cornwall and Jenny Edwards — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Why are conventional interventions that seek to promote women�s empowerment insufficient? This article highlights the choices, negotiations, narratives, and context of women�s lived experience. It finds that empowerment is a complex process of negotiation rather than a linear sequence of inputs and outcomes. Governments and development agencies need to give more consideration to the structures perpetuating gender inequality. They should invest in creating an enabling environment for women�s empowerment, and should support those who are tackling deeply rooted issues of power impeding transformative change.

Afghanistan's Parliament in the Making: Gendered Understandings and Practices of Politics in a Transitional Country

Andrea Fleschenberg — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How can a viable Afghan parliament be developed that will serve citizens� interests and promote peace and reconstruction? What are possible entry points for parliamentary institution-building, particularly regarding female parliamentarians (MPs)? This report from Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung and UNIFEM is based on extensive interviews with Afghan parliamentarians during 2007-2008. Women�s parliamentary participation is of the utmost importance, but is largely dependent on the overall gendered political and security context as well as the progress of and challenges to state- and institution-building. Nevertheless, female MPs� political effectiveness could be increased through mutual cooperation and networking.

World Bank Influence and Institutional Reform in Argentina

Maria F. Tuozzo — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How has the World Bank influenced institutional reforms in Argentina? During the 1990s, the World Bank increasingly promoted the concept of governance reforms. This article from Development and Change looks at governance reforms in Argentina�s judicial sector. The World Bank�s approach to institutional reform has been donor-driven, overly technical and based on restricted forms of decision making. This approach contributed to inadequate initiatives in Argentina and is likely to yield disappointing results elsewhere.

Debt Relief Effectiveness and Institution Building

Andrea Presbitero — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

What effects have recent debt-relief programmes had? Does debt relief promote institutional change? This article from the Development Policy Review provides new evidence on debt-relief programmes in Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs). It shows that debt relief is only weakly associated with subsequent improvements in economic performance and is correlated with increasing domestic debt. But donors are moving towards a more sensible allocation of debt forgiveness, rewarding countries that have better policies and institutions.

Development Assistance, Institution-Building and Social Cohesion after Civil War: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Liberia

James Fearon, Macartan Humphreys, Jeremy M. Weinstein — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Can brief, foreign-funded efforts to build local institutions have a positive effect on governance, cooperation and well-being? This paper from the Center for Global Development reports on a project carried out by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in northern Liberia. This community-driven reconstruction (CDR) project attempted to build democratic, community-level institutions for making decisions about local public goods. The project was successful in increasing social cohesion, with some evidence that it reinforced democratic political attitudes and confidence in local decision-making. Evidence on improved material well-being was weak.

The Role of Scholars and Scholarship in Economic Development

Mary Shirley — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

What is the role of scholars and scholarship in institutional change? How do shared beliefs shift so that self-enforcing and persistent institutions change radically? This chapter from Institutions and Development, published by Edward Elgar, argues that the impetus for changing institutions must come from within a society. When leaders believe that their present policies cannot cope with an economic shock or an external threat, local scholars can act as institutional entrepreneurs by devising and disseminating a new conceptual model of how the world works and a related set of policy reforms. Under the right circumstances the initial reforms institute a persistent and gradual transformation of institutions.

Interim Institutions and the Development Process: Opening Spaces for Reform in Cambodia and Indonesia

Daniel Adler, Caroline Sage, Michael Woolcock — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How can donors facilitate the development of better governance institutions in developing countries? This paper from the Brooks World Poverty Institute analyses current development practice in institution-building through two case studies in Cambodia and Indonesia. It argues that traditional, linear, technically-driven approaches are unproductive due to the inherent unpredictability of socio-political processes. Donors should instead embrace the concept of �interim institutions� as a means of promoting equitable political contestation and facilitating positive and sustainable change.

Institutions and Economic Performance: Implications for African Development

John M. Luiz — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How are sub-Saharan Africa�s (SSA) institutions helping or hindering economic development? This paper from the Journal of International Development explores current theories on how institutions impact economic growth in SSA. �Good� institutions could be the key to increasing the stagnant economic growth in this region. Any attempt to build �good� institutions must consider the existing impediments of poor political institutions, weak social capital and weak state capacity.

Making Reform Work: Institutions, Dispositions and the Improving Health of Bangladesh

Jean-Paul Faguet, Zulfiqar Ali — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

What is the role of social attitudes in supporting institutional reform? This article from World Development explores the institutional and social underpinnings of service provision by comparing decentralised health provision in the Bangladesh upazilas (sub-districts) of Rajnagar and Saturia. Regional variation in health outcomes is explained by the presence or absence of a dense web of relationships that enmeshed reformers in local systems of authority and legitimacy. Policymakers must focus on tailoring service provision to the specific needs and characteristics of the population. This involves increasing local level participation, improving accountability mechanisms, and providing incentives for good performance.

Reforming Institutions: Where to Begin?

M. Idrees Khawaja, Sajawal Khan — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How can institutions in Pakistan be reformed? This working paper from the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics analyses the current literature on institutional change. For institutional change to happen, cultural belief systems must be shaped in a way that provokes a shift in the institutional power structure. Given the current institutional framework and social situation in Pakistan, institutional reform should focus on changing cultural belief systems through education policy reform.

International Compacts: Sovereignty Strategies

Ashraf Ghani, Clare Lockhart — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This chapter from the book 'Fixing Failed States' argues that a stable world requires functioning states in order to overcome challenges to the political and economic system. Domestic and global leadership must find a new approach to transform states so that they provide security and prosperity for their citizens and also act as responsible members of the international community. The study terms this a sovereignty strategy. A long-term state-building strategy tailored to specific contexts should be an organising principle for the international community. Collective energies and capital need to be harnessed.

Inequalities and Development: Dysfunctions, Traps and Transitions

A. Bebbington, A. Dani, A. de Haan, and M. Walton — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

What are inequality traps and how can the international community help countries with inequality to progress toward more equitable and efficient societies? This introductory chapter to the book 'Institutional Pathways to Equity' contends that addressing inequality traps requires understanding the causal forces, be they economic, political, or social, which shape a society�s inequalities. It recommends that the international community shift its focus toward providing incentives for internal actors to change the structures and institutions that sustain inequality and the self-reinforcing mechanisms that generate inequality traps.

Participation and State Legitimation

Katia Papagianni — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

How do postwar countries gain legitimacy in the eyes of political elites and the public? This chapter from Building States to Build Peace argues that statebuilding should be approached as a process (not an event) to legitimate new state institutions. A statebuilding process is most likely to generate legitimacy for the state when it is inclusive of all major political forces, open to public participation, and prioritises maintaining public order and delivering services. Although inclusive and participatory political processes do not necessarily lead to legitimate outcomes, when managed well they have a significant chance of bolstering the legitimacy of postwar states.

Delivering the Goods: Building Local Government Capacity to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals

United Nations Capital Development Fund — Sat, 01 Jan 2005 00:00:00 GMT

How can local development programmes (LDPs) build the capacity of local governments and local organisations in order to improve their performance? This practitioner's guide from the United Nations Capital Development Fund presents lessons and guidelines for local government capacity-building in development programmes. It addresses LDP strategy, financing strategy, local public investment expenditure management, and accountability, communications and information.

Designing Inclusive and Accountable Local Democratic Institutions: A Practitioner's Guide

Henrik Fredborg Larsen — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

How can fair representation be promoted in societies that are deeply divided along ethnic, religious, caste and class bases? This study from the United Nations Development Programme looks at local democracy in Asia. It argues that evidence from the design of systems for representation and elections in divided societies suggests that an appropriately crafted framework can help nurture the accountability and commitment of political parties, while an inappropriate system can harm the process of democratisation. While focus is often on electoral systems, the choice between direct and indirect representation to higher tiers, the functioning of political parties and other elements usually have a stronger impact on the inclusiveness and accountability of the democratic institutions.