Resource Mobilisation in International Public Administrations: Strategies for the Financing of International Public Policy

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Treasure, i.e. financial resources, is arguably the most critical tool of public policy-making. Recent scholarly work highlights how the financing of international public policy is changing. Notable developments include a growing reliance on voluntary contributions; the rise of international trust funds; and the importance of private organisations in financing international policies. However, we know little about how International Public Administrations (IPAs) have responded to the growing complexity in the financing of international policies. Against this background, this project (RESOURCE) asks three main interrelated questions. First, what is the role of IPAs in developing and implementing strategies of resource mobilisation (RM) in support of international public policy, with specific reference to refugee policy? Second, what are key RM strategies at the level of individual IPAs and within organisational fields? Third, what factors shape the choice of strategies?The analytical framework of RESOURCE draws principally on Comparative (International) Public Administration, International Relations, and Comparative (International) Public Policy, complemented by insights from Organisational Sociology and Public Management. These disciplines direct attention to (i) agency by IPAs, their organisational self-interests and policy priorities, which are, however, constrained by member-state principals; (ii) interorganisational fields of public and private, national and international organisations within which IPAs have to act; (iii) organisational, policy-related and situational factors as major influences on resource mobilisation strategies; and (iv) the linkage between treasure and the attainment of organisational and policy ambitions.The project seeks to advance knowledge by focusing on how IPAs, individually and across organisational boundaries, have mobilised resources in a complex policy domain: refugee policy. This policy domain is especially instructive because the long-standing involvement of IPAs in refugee policy allows observations over an extended period of time and across cases; because refugee policy is highly dependent on treasure, often with a need for rapid RM, but also long-term or even open-ended operational or policy-making engagement; and because organisational, policy-related and situational factors that influence RM strategies can be expected to vary over time and across the cases studied.In sum, RESOURCE, whilst building on the previous work of the applicants on budgeting in IPAs within the TIME project, involves several decisive shifts in focus: from administrative budgeting to the role of IPAs in mobilising resources; from the analysis of discrete IPAs to the consideration of IPAs within organisational fields; from generic budgeting processes to the resourcing of a particular policy domain, i.e. refugee policy; and from administrative structures and procedures to policy-related administrative strategies.