This project involves drafting a background paper on Social Organisations and Institutions that examines the interface between different systems of non-state institutions and norm production both horizontally,  across different social groups, and vertically, in relation to formal state structures. The objective is to advance the analytical understanding of this interface between plural normative spheres, and the implications for state society relations in relation to state failure or the risk of violent conflict. The paper will speak also speak to what this means for donor engagement with non-state processes and actors.