| Abstract: | Nowadays it is almost the rule rather than the exception for overseas aid projects in the water and environmental sectors to include 'institutional development'as a significant, if not the main, component. Yet institutional development is not a particularly well-defined activity - it being a combination of managerial, technical, organizational and behavioural techniques. Furthermore, the basic concepts in some of these fields are still in the evolutionary stages.
Starting from a definition of an institution and the purpose of an organization, a simple pragmatic approach to institutional development is described, based on many assignments undertaken in the field. The basis of the approach is a '3-links'model which examines each of three components in turn, i.e. (a) relationships with the environment, (b) organizational issues, and (c) development of the individual. Finally, there are some comments on the criteria for a successful institutional development exercise. |
