Description
How do crises affect international organisations (IOs)? Drawing on cases of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), this paper develops a framework to explain why some IOs emerge strengthened from major shocks while others lose ground. First, I introduce a tripartite classification of IO focality – de jure, discursive, and de facto – and argue that traditional measures overlook key funding-based indicators. Building on this, I propose a De Facto Focality Index (DFFI), which weights both the quantity and quality (earmarked vs. unearmarked) of an IO’s funding relative to other actors in its policy space. Second, I theorise two causal pathways for IOs responding to crises: early perception and pro-active crisis management can increase an IO’s focality, while downplaying or reacting late often leads donors to choose alternative institutions. Qualitative illustrations of FAO’s role in the 1970s world food crisis and WHO’s responses to HIV/AIDS, the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak and COVID-19 demonstrate how crisis response, donor reactions, and focality are intertwined. Finally, I outline next steps in this research project combining network analysis of IO centrality and computational text analysis of donor communications, aiming to validate the DFFI as a sensitive barometer of IO focality and test whether discursive and de facto focality track together or diverge over time.
