ABSTRACT
This chapter defines development institutions to recognize institutional heterogeneity and discusses the difficulty in creating a typology to adequately capture institutional variety. It describes five dimensions along which Sub-Regional Development Banks (SRDBs) are analyzed are introduced in terms of how they relate to the legitimacy and resource dependence frameworks referenced and followed by analysis of each dimension including how it compares to the World Bank. The five dimensions are membership and governance structure, accountability mechanisms, commitment to transparency, internal project evaluation, inclusion of civil society and environmental interests in the planning process and subsequent projects. Input legitimacy is determined by dimensions of membership, governance structure, accountability mechanisms, internal project evaluation, and inclusion of civil society in the planning process. The chapter concludes with a discussion summarizing how SRDBs compare along these dimensions and makes recommendations for future research on this subset of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs).
