Institutional Development: A Third World City Perspective

THIS WORK SEEKS to provide some general principles to guide the processes of institutional development in the context of Third World cities. It is intended as an instrument for policy makers, city managers and development agencies to promote sound urban institutions. The author reviews recent (1984–1994) theoretical perspectives on institutional development and city management and draws on his own experience as a chief executive of Lilongwe city council in Malawi.

The book is divided into six parts, comprising twelve chapters. At the end of each part, key points from each chapter are brought together to summarize the definitions, arguments and lessons of significance. Helpful tables identify the frequency with which key concepts recur in the literature reviewed and give a feel for their relative importance. The appendix relates municipal function (infrastructure, services, building and finance) to institutional form (private sector, local and central government) in a series of "urban management matrices". This is followed by a very wide bibliography.

Whilst institutional development is promoted by both the World Bank and the British aid programme (formerly the Overseas Development Administration (ODA), now renamed the Department for International Development (DFID)), “...there is no standard model for Third World institutional development.” An institution is distinguished from an organization by the value it has as a result of its concern with “...purposes and values which extend beyond the immediate task in hand.” Part I defines institutional development as the iterative and exploratory process of optimizing the human and financial resources of an institution. Central to it are the issues of participation, learning and sustainability. The scope of the institutional development process is then mapped, and different modes of intervention described to situate it within a conceptual framework.

Part II examines different planning perspectives, their effects and the parameters of urban management. It identifies the functional characteristics of city management development strategies and situates them within a holistic framework which eschews the “...wholesale acceptance of Western perceptions.” Instead, planning should form an integrated part of urban management, a process which is continuous, incremental and cyclical and which addresses the informal sector by direct community participation. Furthermore, the viability of development projects should not depend solely on their "bankability" - i.e. their attractiveness to banks and other international donors. The essential components of urban management are: effective communication between agencies; a strategy shared by all agencies; and an action and resource plan that ensures the implementation of the strategy. A key resource is infrastructure that supports economic development.

Part III examines organizational arrangements and dilemmas in cities and identifies the structural characteristics of institutional development. The author recognizes the political nature of the development process, which is “...dominated by policy concerns and human needs.” While arguing in favour of decentralization, he identifies reasons for its failure in cases where planning and resourcing were poor, where objectives were not clear or were lacking, and where legislation was ambiguous. He discusses the three types of decentralization: deconcentration, delegation and devolution. A way of designing organizations for urban management which locates function according to funding source is suggested but it is emphasized that there is no single organizational model for urban management.

In the fourth and fifth parts, two case studies focus on the importance of the relationship between an organization and its development environment, and on the building of policy and planning capabilities. These draw on the author's experiences with urban governments in Malawi in considering project development