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10 - Assessing International Organizations

Competition, Collaboration, and Politics of Funding

from Part III - Beyond and Within State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2020

By
Ranjit Lall
Edited by
Judith G. Kelley  and
Beth A. Simmons
Judith G. Kelley
Affiliation:
Duke University, North Carolina
Beth A. Simmons
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
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Summary

During the past decade, states have initiated a striking trend in global governance: the creation and promulgation of indicators of the performance of international organizations (IOs). These Global Performance Indicators (GPIs) were developed to help policymakers make more efficient use of their multilateral funding in the context of budgetary pressures induced by the global economic crisis. Puzzlingly, however, not all IOs that have received high ratings have been “rewarded” with increased financial contributions, while not all IOs that have received low ratings have been “punished” with funding cuts or freezes. This chapter examines when and why IO performance indicators influence resource flows to these institutions. Analyzing ratings as a form of social knowledge, I develop an argument that highlights how different aspects of the relationship between IOs and other actors within their policy space mediate the financial effects of such knowledge. I posit that resource flows are only responsive to ratings when one of two relational conditions is satisfied: (1) IOs face a high degree of institutional competition; and (2) IOs have robust governance partnerships with non-state actors. I test the argument using a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative evidence from interviews and other sources with statistical analyses – both observational and quasi-experimental – based on an original dataset covering all six sets of indicators issued thus far. In addition to highlighting an important area in which GPIs have emerged in recent years, the chapter enhances our understanding of the scope conditions for their effects.

Keywords

international organizationsinternational political economycompetitionnon-state actorsforeign aideconomic developmentorganizational funding
Type
Chapter
Information
The Power of Global Performance Indicators , pp. 300 - 338
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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