#38: Strengthening existing institutions which contribute to coordination between actors / sectors

Multi-

"[A]ny person, group or organisation with an interest or ‘stake’ in an issue, either because they will be affected or because they may have some influence on its outcome. Stakeholders may include other government bodies.” (Ridder et al. 2005).

institutions such as committees or councils, which depending on its particular function can play a role that can range from development of high-level strategies to on-the-ground implementation of actions, are strengthened to provide improved coordination.

The assumption is that in view of weak coordination, an option to improve coordination results is to strengthen existing institutions. This strengthening can address the institutions' power, their influence and/or their effectiveness. Concrete examples of strengthening are: 1) increased competencies, 2) political upgrade, 3) stabilisation of representation to make the institution less dependent on political changes.

The Tejaswini Project in India attempts at strengthening grass-root level organization for development purposes and, in particular for watershed community management. To this end, exercises for self-evaluation of collective organization groups and their capacity to manage resource collectively are conducted regularly. This practice is a tool to register the degree of development or maturity of a specific group, or self-help-group (SHG). A set of simple indicators monitor the advancements of the SHGs. The Tejaswini project provides services to support improvements, for example offering training and auditing, with the objective of developing self-sufficient community-managed resource centres (CMRCs). At present moment, CMRCs are still underdeveloped as they fail to achieve institutional

Sustainability is defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). For development to be sustainable, it must take account of social, ecological, and economic factors (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, 2015).

 

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. (2015). Integrating the Three Dimensions of Sustainable Development. A Framework and Tools. Bangkok.

World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future.

. Stronger mentoring efforts are required, especially for those groups where good

Governance can be defined as the various institutionalised modes of social coordination to produce and implement collectively binding rules, or to provide collective goods (Börzel & Risse, 2010,p. 114).

Börzel, T. A., & Risse, T. (2010). Governance Without a State: Can It Work? Regulation & Governance, 4(2), 113–134. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5991.2010.01076.x

and the management of operation is pursued.