4. TRENDS IN THE ARCHITECTURE OF DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION

Pressure on the multilateral system for reforms. The UN and the development banks were established in the years after world war ii, and their structure reflects the balance of power and the movements in the international policy agenda in the post-war years. In recent years, a wealth of new international organisations and funds have been established in the area of development cooperation, including in the areas of health, education and climate, largely in response to the lack of effectiveness of the existing system, especially at country level. This emphasises the need for a real reform and restructuring of the multilateral system.

Fulfilment of promises of increased international development assistance is lagging behind – tendency of increased multilateral assistance. There is a trend towards increasing international development assistance, however not at the speed which was promised in Monterrey in 2002 and last in Gleneagles in 2005 and which is a prerequisite for meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

The official development assistance of the DAC countries will remain the dominant source of non-commercial transfers to developing countries¹. But at the same time, the private sector, NGOs and private companies increasingly provide development assistance directly or through various forms of profiled partnerships with both multilateral organisations and bilateral donors, such as the Gates foundation and GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization). These players are characterised by a very direct linkage to global media and policy makers.

All in all, the growing development assistance in some DAC countries and growing private transfers to development purposes imply an increasing use of multilateral channels. This is basically a positive change, but it means that Denmark’s relative financial size, particularly in a number of UN agencies, is likely to be challenged.

Changes in the global multilateral assistance towards the joint EU development assistance and thematic vertical funds. There have been a number of shifts in the relative sizes of the multilateral organisations.

In 2006, joint EU development assistance accounted for 36 per cent of the international official multilateral development assistance (against 28 per cent in 2000). At the same time, the EU has a wide palette of political-economic objectives and instruments in relation to the international agenda that go beyond the development assistance agenda.

On the whole, the EU development assistance² today is the largest in the world, constituting almost 60 per cent of the international official global development assistance. A number of factors suggest that the EU and the EU Commission will have an increasing influence in international development cooperation in the years to come: increased budgets of development assistance, global presence, increasing coordination between the member states and the strengthening of the EU as a political factor.

An explosive increase in the number of new structures can also be observed. Partly as mushrooming within existing organisations and partly as supplements to the conventional multilateral system. An example of the latter, which plays a significant role, is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFTAM). GFTAM was established in 2001 and already in 2006 it received six per cent of the total international official multilateral development assistance.

Fragmentation and earmarking challenge the efficiency of development assistance. Today, there are more than 230 different international organisations, funds and programmes, which are all basically competing to attract the same donor money. Generally, the number of development assistance partners – multilateral as well as bilateral – per developing country is increasing. It follows that the average size of the assistance is decreasing. Another similar trend is the increased targeting of multilateral funds for specific thematic purposes and programmes. At the global level more than half of the contributions to multilateral organisations in 2005 were earmarked. This has generally contributed to reducing the operational scope for the individual organisations.

New approaches from the “new” donors. A further trend in the architecture of development cooperation is the increasing presence of “new” countries – including Brazil, Russia, India, South Korea and China – as donors. In this group of countries there is a tendency to have a regional focus, to have a project approach and to have a close relationship between own national interests, including energy security, and the development assistance. Overall, this means more resources for development, which is positive. However, it also contributes to the increased complexity of the global architecture of development cooperation, and it places new demands on Denmark and like-minded donors to build new alliances in the multilateral forums.

Efficiency of development assistance – also a multilateral priority. The multilateral organisations participate in the Paris work concerning increased development assistance efficiency at country level. This applies particularly to the World Bank, but increasingly also to the UN system. However, for the time being the united nations has more focus on internal coordination of the UN agencies, not least through the Delivering as One initiative. At the European level, the EU member states with the adoption of the European Consensus, have launched a process regarding the international commitments that is more extensive and ambitious than the principles contained in the Paris Declaration. A European consensus with ambitious principles on how to further the efficiency of development assistance in the humanitarian field has also been developed.

¹ together with remittances – migrants and refugees sending money back to their home country.

² EU development assistance is the assistance provided by both the EU member states and the European Commission. The joint EU assistance is the assistance that is administered by the European Commission (EC).