INFORMAL INSTITUTIONS

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INFORMAL INSTITUTIONS DEVELOPMENTO E C D -
Paris 11-12 Dec. 2006,

• Dr. S.S. MEENAKSHISUNDARAM
• Visiting Professor
• National Institute of Advanced Studies
• Indian Institute of Science Campus
• Bangalore 560 012

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• For sustainable development we need peoples
  institutions.
• These include
• Community Based Organizations
• Co-operatives
• Local Governments

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Formal Institutions in India Gram Sabha (Village
Council) Village Panchayat (for a group of
villages) Intermediate Panchayat (for a
population around 100,000) District
Panchayat State Government
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• INFORMAL INSTITUTIONS
• FOREST MANAGEMENT COMMITTEES
• WATER USERS ASSOCIATIONS
• WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEES
• PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATIONS
• SELF HELP GROUPS

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GOVERNANCE ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS

• Formal Institutions
• Governed by Constitution/Statutes
• Established through democratic processes
• Capacity building provided for, though not on a
  regular basis
• Accountable to
• Parliament/State Legislature/
• Village Council/General Body
• Subject to public accounting and audit procedures
• Open to Judicial review

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GOVERNANCE ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS

• Informal Institutions
• Governance and management informal
• No specific programme for Capacity Development
• Accountable to the collective/group
• No formal audit
• Social audit possible

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• DEVELOPMENT THROUGH
• INFORMAL INSTITUTIONS
• ADVANTAGES
• ALL THE STAKEHOLDERS ARE MEMBERS
• ACCOUNTABILITY DIRECT
• TRANSPARENCY IN-BUILT
• DISADVANTAGES
• MOSTLY RELATE TO SETTLED AGRARIAN FAMILIES
• MAY NOT BE HOMOGENEOUS
• INTERESTS CAN BE CONFLICTING
• HAVE NO LEGAL EXISTENCE
• NO STATUS OUTSIDE THE SPECIFIC ACTIVITY
• NO LONG TERM PLANNING POSSIBLE

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• DEVELOPMET THROUGH
• FORMAL INSTITUTIONS
• ADVANTAGES
• HAVE LEGAL EXISTENCE
• OWN COMMON PROPERTY RESOURCES
• BETTER AVAILABILITY OF FINANCES
• INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT POSSIBLE
• WEAKER SECTIONS REPRESENTED
• DISADVANTAGES
• FUNCTION IN A WIDER AREA
• ONLY REPRESENTATIVE BODIES
• MAY NOT LOOK AFTER THE INTERESTS OF ACTUAL USERS
  OR THE POOR
• POLITICALLY DIVIDED

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INTERFACE

• Informal Institutions can
• Identify candidates for contesting elections
• Play vital role in decentralized planning
• Evaluate the performance of formal institutions
  in their area/sector and provide feed back
• Formal Institutions can
• Implement development programmes through informal
  institutions
• Provide them with governance and accountability
  mechanisms
• Get assets maintained by them

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WHAT CAN WE DO?

• We need to recognize that
• Both formal and informal institutions are
  necessary for sustainable development
• There is a need to ensure that they complement
  each other and do not work at cross purposes
• It is possible to link these institutions at the
  operational level
• Providing a formal forum at the Village level for
  report by the informal institutions can help both
  of them
• Capacity Building should cut across the nature of
  the institution and form an integral part of all
  development efforts.
• act accordingly.

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THANK YOU