How institutions elude design: river basin management and sustainable livelihoods.

• Main Authors: Cleaver, Frances D., Franks, Tom R.
• Language: en
• Published: Bradford Centre for International Development 2009
• Subjects: River basin management; Institutional design principles; Tanzania; Dynamic institutional formation
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10454/2964

Yes === This paper challenges ideas that it is possible to `get the institutions right¿ in the management of natural resources. It engages with the literature and policy specifying `design principles¿ for robust institutions and uses data from a river basin management project in Usangu, Tanzania, to illustrate the complexity of institutional evolution. The paper draws on emerging `post-institutionalist¿ perspectives to reject over-formalised managerial approaches in favour of those that accept the dynamic nature of institutional formation, and accommodate a variety of partial and contingent solutions. Data from Usangu suggests that external `crafting¿ is inevitably problematic because, to a certain extent, institutions elude design.