This report contributes to the broader international debate on why we need multilateralism and how to make it more effective to achieve the 2030 Agenda. At a time when the value of multilateralism is being questioned, the report provides new evidence and recommendations for a new “pact” on ...

As the “Decade of Action” begins, the world needs an effective multilateral development finance system to deliver on the promises of the 2030 Agenda and support the recovery of developing countries from the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Even before the crisis, the system, torn between high expectations and growing criticism of its perceived lack of accountability and effectiveness, was showing signs of stress.

The OECD Secretary-General's annual report to ministers covers the OECD’s 2018 activities and some 2019 highlights. It describes the OECD’s work on economics, employment, education, the environment, and many other fields in the context of a rapidly changing world. It includes the activities of the Secretary-General and his office, as well as those of OECD directorates, agencies, special entities and advisory committees.

Written by an international team of over sixty experts and drawing on over three thousand scientific studies, this is the first comprehensive global assessment of the political impact of the Sustainable Development Goals, which were launched by the United Nations in 2015. It explores in detail the political steering effects of the Sustainable Development Goals on the UN system and the policies of countries in the Global North and Global South; on institutional integration and policy coherence; and on the ecological integrity and inclusiveness of sustainability policies worldwide. This book is a key resource for scholars, policymakers and activists concerned with the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, and those working in political science, international relations and environmental studies. It is one of a series of publications associated with the Earth System Governance Project. For more publications, see www.cambridge.org/earth-system-governance. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

This edited book provides a contemporary, critical and thought-provoking analysis of the internal and external threats to Western multilateral development finance in the twenty-first century. It draws on the expertise of scholars with a range of backgrounds providing a critical exploration of the neoliberal multilateral development aid. The contributions focus on how Western institutions have historically dominated development aid, and juxtapose this hegemony with the recent challenges from right-wing populist and the Beijing Consensus ideologies and practices. This book argues that the rise of right-wing populism has brought internal challenges to traditional powers within the multilateral development system. External challenges arise from the influence of China and regional development banks by providing alternatives to established Western dominated aid sources and architecture. From this vantagepoint, Rethinking Multilateralism in Foreign Aid puts forward new ideas for addressing the current global social, political and economic challenges concerning multilateral development aid. This book will be of interest to researchers, academics and students in the field of International Development and Global Governance, decision-makers at government level as well as to those working in international aid institutions, regional and bilateral aid agencies, and non-governmental organisations.

Global governance now provides people with recourse for harm through International Grievance Mechanisms, such as the Independent Accountability Mechanisms of the Multilateral Development Banks. Yet little is known about how such mechanisms work. This Element examines how IGMs provide recourse for infringements of three procedural environmental rights: access to information, access to participation, and access to justice in environmental matters, as well as environmental protections drawn from the United Nations Guiding Principles and the World Bank's protection standards. A content analysis of 394 original IAM claims details how people invoke these rights. The sections then unpack how the IAMs provide community engagement through 'problem solving', and 'compliance investigations' that identify whether the harm resulted from the MDBs. Using a database of all known submissions to the IAMs (1,052 claims from 1994 to mid-2019), this Element demonstrate how the IAMs enable people to air their grievances, without necessarily solving their problems.

In Systemic Thinking for Policy Making world experts from the OECD and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) pool their expertise and experience to propose new approaches to analysing the interconnected trends and issues shaping today’s and tomorrow’s world.

Aid instruments need to adjust to new challenges and priorities. Global pandemics, climate change, increased inequality, low economic growth, and conflict have made it increasingly difficult for developing countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Retooling Development Aid in the 21st Century: The Importance of Budget Support examines the critical role of budget support by both multilateral and bilateral aid agencies to address the 21st century's development goals of eliminating poverty and protecting our global commons. Timely and smartly designed budget support remains a powerful tool to help address the new reality developing countries face, providing fast disbursing finance in support of critical reforms. Set against the background of a dramatically changing international financial architecture, the volume examines how budget support has evolved from its controversial past, addresses the evidence on performance and debates over conditionality, and it reflects on unmet expectations from the 2005 Paris Declaration. With the global financial crisis, the Covid pandemic, and the spillovers from conflict and climate change, budget support re-emerged as a key financing instrument to support policy reforms and catalyze private capital. Drawing on the lessons of the last two decades, the volume proposes a retooling of budget support as a versatile instrument to address both essential global public goods and tackle country-specific development challenges.

The Elgar Companion to The World Bank provides a comprehensive review of the past 80 years for this powerful development institution. Using different theoretical approaches from an expert group of scholars as well as practitioners, it presents an interdisciplinary exploration of the World Bank and the wider field of International Relations.

This book examines a particular type of donor behavior – known as country earmarking of contributions – which occurs within the voluntary financing system of the United Nations. The research demonstrates that already during the period of the Millennium Development Goals a large share of the voluntary multilateral funding decisions was influenced by the commercial priorities of the OECD/DAC donor countries. The theoretical contribution focuses on disentangling the mix of policy advantages that can be pursued through linking of donors’ commercial priorities with multi-bilateral development programs. The book considers its empirical findings within the current framework of the Sustainable Development Goals and the associated aid financing architecture. It demonstrates that, despite many negative associations of commercial aid giving, it is difficult to make an indisputably negative judgment on the practice of commercial earmarking in the specific context of the specialized UN agencies. The author argues that whether commercial earmarking proves to be a curse or a blessing for the multilateral development institutions will very much depend on the availability of parallel, flexible funding, and the creation of adequate political and operational space for supranational norm-keepers. Synthesizing the existing knowledge concerning the supply-side of multi-bi aid, this book provides an accessible, entry-level overview of the topic that will appeal to students and scholars of global governance and international organizations.