Description
Over the past decade, donor governments have increasingly restricted their contributions to international organizations to specific recipient countries, themes, or sectors. Having increased tenfold during 2000-19, this ‘earmarked funding’ now amounts to over USD 25 billion per year and supports the bulk of activities in most UN entities. This has sparked a heated debate. While advocates pinpoint potential efficiency gains and greater accountability afforded by tailored reporting on earmarked funds, critics believe this funding diminishes organizational capacities to respond to emergent challenges and thus undermines aid effectiveness. Drawing on stakeholder interviews, aid evaluation reports, and official documents, this paper will conduct structured-focused comparisons of the three key organizations in the food and agricultural development complex, which includes the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Program (WFP), to examine how earmarked funding affects organizational performance and aid effectiveness. The results will contribute to research by identifying funding structures as an overlooked determinant of the effectiveness of international organizations while at the same offering new insights into an important policy issue.
