Governance, institutional structures and sustainable livelihoods

1. IFAD SL Workshop Governance, institutional structures and sustainable livelihoods • Introduction • Current response to institutional problems • What are institutions? • What is governance? • Focus on relationships • Requirements for governance model • Related structural issues • Links to sustainable livelihoods principles • Conclusions Slide 1 Institutions and SL

2. IFAD SL Workshop 1) Introduction • Institutional structures are sometimes seen as ‘fixed’ – a ‘given’, not a variable. We work around them, not with them. • Concerns: • Accountability • Responsiveness • Voice / choice • Joined-up action is needed Slide 2 Institutions and SL

3. IFAD SL Workshop 2) Current responses to institutional problems • We tend to focus on: • The agencies rather than the ‘rules’ • Capacity-building rather than institutional reform • Common: • Projects • Reform or economic management • Less common: • Institutional structures and new governance arrangements Slide 3 Institutions and SL

4. IFAD SL Workshop 3) What are institutions? • They consist of rules and agencies • Need to distinguish between: • Institutional reform • Organisational development • Process change Slide 4 Institutions and SL

5. IFAD SL Workshop 4) What is governance? • A political concept • Measures that involve setting the rules for the exercise of power, and settling of conflicts over these rules • To understand governance we need: • to separate functions, and • focus on relationships Slide 5 Institutions and SL

6. IFAD SL Workshop 5) Focus on relationships • Participation and negotiation • Contract: • Improve accountability • Introduce measurement • Increase clarity, but • Increase costs and some staff resistance • Impact assessment concerns: • Measurement definitions • Projections • Causality and attribution • Valuation Slide 6 Institutions and SL

7. IFAD SL Workshop 6) Requirements for governance model We need to think differently about: • Funding • Representation • Accessing information • Legal redress Slide 7 Institutions and SL

8. IFAD SL Workshop a) Funding Funding must change to reinforce the new functions, structures and systems • Institutional effects of centralised mechanisms • Separation of funding from planning • Community transfers/ vouchers systems Slide 8 Institutions and SL

9. IFAD SL Workshop b) Representation Such as: • Focus groups • Citizen juries • Local governance • Lobbying and advocacy groups Slide 9 Institutions and SL

10. IFAD SL Workshop c) Public access to information • Consultative documents and processes • Publication of standards • User and citizen charters Slide 10 Institutions and SL

11. IFAD SL Workshop d) Access to legal redress Especially important when relationships are: • Explicit • Rule-based Slide 11 Institutions and SL

12. IFAD SL Workshop 7) Related structural issues • Decentralisation • Administrative • Fiscal • Political • Partnerships • Co-operation • Co-ordination • Collaboration Watch out! Partnerships can fuzz the separation of functions and sour the relationship Slide 12 Institutions and SL

13. IFAD SL Workshop 8) Link to sustainable livelihood principles • See notes Slide 13 Institutions and SL

14. IFAD SL Workshop 9) Conclusions 6 of the best ! • Examine relationships – cleavage • Power = voice + choice • Need new structures for enablers to understand citizens / users • Standards, rules and rights matter • Balance in relationships helps • The poor can (Do!) govern themselves well Slide 14 Institutions and SL

15. IFAD SL Workshop Review • Institutional structures are not a ‘given’ • Institutions = rules and agencies • Governors manage the rules of power • Consider function and relationship • Issues to consider changing: • Funding • Representation • Accessing information • Legal redress • There are links to the sustainable livelihoods principles • Conclusions: lots of think about and act on! Slide 15 Institutions and SL