Institution-Building – Lessons from History

In the post war world, numerous attempts at all levels – multinational, bilateral and domestic – have been made to foster growth and development in the low income world so that these countries can catch up with their richer brethren from the industrial countries. Why has growth not been faster? What can be done to make these countries achieve more balanced and sustainable growth? These are important questions of the day that are preoccupying all serious positive social science and development policymaking. To a large extent, many of the answers that are being derived relate to the failure of these countries to develop key institutions. Most practitioners and thinkers are now in agreement on this issue but remain perplexed at what is required to develop these institutions. The public sector’s attempts at developing the institutions within its fold have not succeeded. The fostering of non-governmental institutions also remains fairly uneven in its results. Donor funding for institutional support too has had very limited results despite the extensive history of sectoral and institutional reform that has been supported by substantial financial and technical assistance and resources.