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The OECD Development Centre &
 the Development Assistance Committee - Network on Governance (GOVNET)

International Seminar on
Informal Institutions: What do we know, what can we do?

11-12 December 2006

The World Bank's Paris offices
66 Avenue d'Iéna Paris.

The Seminar assessed the role of informal institutions in the development process. In particular it addressed the following questions: How do informal institutions such as traditions, customs and social norms affect development? What are the linkages and possible conflicts between informal and formal institutions? How can donors and partner countries foster the contribution of informal institutions to a more enabling environment for development? Please click on the following links for the Agenda,  Concept Note and Summary Record.

BACKGROUND PAPERS

• Overview Paper: Roundtable Discussion
• Session A: Informal Institutions and Gender equality
• Session B: Governance and Accountability--How does the formal and informal interplay and change
• Session C: Private Sector Development: How business interacts with informal institutions
• Session C2: The Disconnect Between Formal and Informal Institutions in the Tanzanian Firm Sector
  

PRESENTATIONS

Key Note Address

• Informal Institutions - A Policy Perspective from Chile, Gonzalo Arenas Valverde (Vice Minister of Planning, Chile)
• South Africa's Experience with Informal Institutions, Sue van der Merwe (Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, South Africa)

Session A

• Measuring Gender Inequality, Denis Drechsler
• Informal Institutions and Gender Equality, Gita Sen
• Experiences from the field, Neema Mgana
• The Role of Informal Institutions for Gender Equality in Bulgaria, Genoveva Tisheva

Session B

• Informal Institutions and the Iinkages to Human Rights Based Approaches, Upala Banerjee
• Governance and Accountability: How do the formal and informal interplay? Nils Boesen
• Informal Institutions and Development, Meenakshisundaram
• Informal Institutions, Capacity Development and Governance: unleashing the power of data, information, and demand-side pressures for change, Mark Nelson

Session C

• The Disconect Between Formal and Informal Institutions for the Firm Sector in Tanzania, Marion Eeckhout
• Impact of Informal Institutions on Private Sector Development: A Developing World Prospective, Kithinji Kiragu
• Cultural, Family Ties, and the Saving Hand, Juan R de Laiglesia & Christian Morrisson
• Private Sector Development: How Business Interacts with Informal Institutions, Stephen Nicholas & Elizabeth Maitland
• Private Sector Development and Informal Institutions: Can they be Bridged? A Success Story, Elena Panaritis
• Working Group, Private Sector Development

Roundtable Discussion

• Informal Institutions: Impact on Development and Social Justice, Goetz
• Informal Institutions: What do we know, what can we do? Indra de Soysa, Johannes Jutting
• Informal Institutions and Development, Subir Lall
• Seminaire International sur le Theme “Institutions informelles et Développement”, Ginette-Ursule Yoman
• Legal Empowerment and Informal Institutions, Naresh Singh
  

OTHER BACKGROUND MATERIAL

• Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embededness, Mark Granovetter
• Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy: Lessons from Medieval Trade, Avner Greif
• Informal Institutions and Comparative Politics: A Research Agenda, Gretchen Helmke and Steven Levitsky
• The Gradual Erosion of the Social Security Function of Customary Land Tenure Arrangements in Lineage-Based Societies, Jean-Philippe Platteau
• Institutional Change and Economic Transition: Market Enhancing, Chinese Style. Ahrens and Mengeringhaus
• Informal Institutions and Comparative Politics: A Research Agenda. Helmke and Levitsky
• The Role of Institutions in Entrepreneurship: Implications for Development Policy. Sautet
• The Relevance of the Concepts of Formality and Informality: A Theoretical Appraisal. Sindzingre
• Explaining Threshold Effects of Globalization on Poverty. Sindzingre
• Private Sector Development, OECD Network on Poverty, Paris: OECD
• Clague, Christopher, ed. 1997. Institutions and Economic Development : Growth and  Governance in Less-Developed and Post-Socialist Countries. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Knight, Jack. 1992. Institutions and Social Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Ostrom, Elinor. 1997. "Capital, Institutions, Incentives." In Institutions and Economic Development: Growth and Governance in Less-Developed and Post-Socialist Countries, ed. C. Clague. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Putnam, Robert. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  

For further information, please contact Johannes Jütting (Johannes.Jutting@oecd.org; Tel. 01 45 24 82 75) or Sebastian Bartsch (Sebastian.Bartsch@oecd.org; Tel. 01 45 24 90 21).