Appraising institutional challenges in the early stages of development

On the part of the state, the main tasks required are the construction and maintenance of rural feeder roads, which can be branched off into the main grid, and the effective suppression of all of the money-extorting posts on the routes used by producers and traders. [...] The organisation of the value chain up to a European food distributing company (the Carrefour chain of supermarkets in France), the high quality of the product, and the quick supply response from the farmers in the Allada region are important advantages for the success of this initiative. [...] Clearly, in the context of a competitive world market dominated by big value chains, the government has a key role to play in the detection of profitable opportunities, the organisation of effective linkages with distant markets, research and development destined to improve the quality of the product and uncover promising by-products, and the like. [...] The success of the former operation owed much to the support he brought in 1991 to the election of President Nicephore Soglo, previously a World Bank official, and the success of the latter to his shift of allegiance in favour of President Thomas Boni Yayi, a former governor of the West African Bank for Development. [...] The perceived quality of institutions The capacity of the country to address the development challenges summarised above depends on the quality of its institutions, which themselves will determine the effectiveness and inclusiveness of the policies that must be put in place.