Th is paper provides a perspective on and review of the relationship betweenrnin stitut ions, income and poverty, as it relates to poverty patterns in Sub-SaharanrnAfrica. It tries to ana lyze the importance of in stitutions on growth process andrnpoverty reduct ion in the region. The study employs a random effect error componentrnmodel to investigate the envisaged relation ships in the system of simul taneousrnequation models of open ness, in stitutions, income and poverty. It is a GMM typernrandom effect model that hand les systems of eq uations simultaneo usly. It alsornhandles the problems of endogeneity, control individual unobserved heterogeneityrnand hand le unbalanced-ness of the data. Accordingly, while institut ions have beenrnshown to have a direct impact on economic performance (income), we argue in thisrnpaper for a weak direct relation ship between institutions and poverty measures. Wernfind that in stitutions, as measured by a strong commitment to the rule of law amongrnother things, matter for poverty reduction largely through their effect on economicrngrowth (income). Moreover, the analysis demonstrates that the institutional qualityrnindicato rs that are rel ated with the economic in sti tutions (government effectiveness,rnregulatory qua lity, rule of law and control of co rruption) have a stronger impact onrnincome thereby on poverty reduction. Thus taking into account this, the mostrnimportant institutions to be built or to be strengthened include rule of law (prope rtyrnri ght), regulatory institutions that stimulate investment, resource allocation andrnefficiency are more relevant for growth and poverty reducti on than the nature of thernpolitical system in the region. Thereby we can improve the mapp ing of growth in tornpoverty in the region.