Sub-Saharan Africa - Improving Institutional and Economic Performance
The institutional crisis affecting economic management in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is a crisis of structural disconnect between formal institutions transplanted from outside and indigenous institutions born of the culture and traditional values of...
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
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Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/1996/02/12845405/sub-saharan-africa-improving-institutional-economic-performance http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9976 |
| Summary: | The institutional crisis affecting
economic management in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is a crisis
of structural disconnect between formal institutions
transplanted from outside and indigenous institutions born
of the culture and traditional values of the African past.
Building on the findings and recommendations of the new
school of institutional economics, the study, Africa's
management in the 1990s and beyond: Reconciling Indigenous
and Transplanted Institutions (AM90s) posits that both
formal and informal institutions are needed in Africa, but
in a more flexible and adapted form. Formal institutions
need to be adapted to the local culture/context, in order to
build the legitimacy needed for enforceability. Informal
institutions, although rooted in local culture, also need to
adapt to the changing outside world and challenges. It is
through this adaptation that formal and informal
institutions can converge be reconciled and build on each
other's strengths, transaction costs reduced and
institutional performance maximized. This process for
building convergence is at the heart of the institutional
reconciliation paradigm proposed by the AM90s research
program and calls for a truly participatory and synergistic
approach. This institutional reconciliation is both possible
and necessary to make civil services in SSA more
service-oriented, develop the private sector, and improve
the productivity of African enterprise. |
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