Earmarked funding and the effectiveness of international development organizations (EF-IO)

EF-IO研究计划将研究专用资金如何影响国际发展组织(IDO)应对全球发展挑战的有效性。“指定用途资金”是指捐助国政府向工发组织提供的财政捐助，其用途仅限于特定受援国、主题或部门。在过去二十年中，流向国际发展组织的专用资金增加了十倍，这导致人们越来越担心，这些组织根据发展需要分配资源的能力下降，援助交付的交易成本增加，国际发展组织之间不正当的资金竞争。除了对个别IDOS的案例研究外，我们对指定用途资金对IDOS的影响的了解有限。在这一背景下，EF-IO追求以下研究目标：--建立一个理论框架，以了解专用资金对IDO的各种影响；--建立专用资金、组织绩效和项目绩效之间的复杂关系；--审查IDO绩效与IDO有效性的关系。为了实现这些目标，EF-IO将采用多方法方法，结合对40个与发展利益攸关方的半结构化访谈的定性分析，在不同分析层次上对大N行政数据进行结构回归分析，以及在国家一级进行调查数据分析。首先，EF-IO将利用对40多个IDO利益攸关方的半结构化访谈，以确定专用资金的“微观-宏观悖论”的盛行情况，即专用资金的可获得性可以提高个别项目的绩效，但同时也会削弱实施IDOS的组织绩效。第二，通过扩展现有的专用资金数据，并将它们与新的业绩数据联系起来，环境基金组织将确定专用资金是否以及如何影响个别项目及其执行IDOS的业绩。为此，EF-IO将进一步开发适当的方法工具，以评估指定用途资金的因果影响，包括结构回归分析和工具变量设计。第三，通过试行一项调查实验，EF-IO将研究IDO的表现如何影响国家精英所认为的援助效果。为此，它将建立在联合国对受援国精英进行的调查的基础上。除了对社会科学研究的几个方面做出贡献外，EF-IO的调查结果还将为关于专用资金的政策辩论提供信息。通过提供有关专用资金如何影响IDOS效力的新证据，报告提出了改革此类资金的途径，以最大限度地发挥IDOS实现2030年可持续发展目标(SDGs)的潜力，同时考虑到捐助者需要确保其发展捐款的可见度。

The EF-IO research program will examine how earmarked funding affects the effectiveness of international development organizations (IDOs) in addressing global development challenges. 'Earmarked funding' refers to financial contributions from donor governments to IDOs whose use is restricted to specific recipient countries, themes, or sectors. Over the past two decades, flows of earmarked funding to IDOs have increased tenfold, which has led to growing concerns about a decline in the ability of such organizations to allocate resources in accordance with development needs, increased transaction costs of aid delivery, and unhealthy competition for funding among IDOs. Apart from case studies on individual IDOs, our knowledge about the consequences of earmarked funding on IDOs is limited. Against this background, EF-IO pursues the following research aims: -- develop a theoretical framework to understand the variegated effects of earmarked funding on IDOs;-- establish the complex relationship between earmarked funding, organizational performance, and project performance;-- examine to what extent IDO performance is related to IDO effectiveness.To achieve these objectives, EF-IO will use a multi-method approach combining qualitative analysis of 40 semi-structured interviews with development stakeholders, structural regression analysis of large-N administrative data at different levels of analysis, and survey data analysis at the country level. First, EF-IO will draw on semi-structured interviews with over 40 IDO stakeholders to establish the prevalence of a 'micro-macro paradox' of earmarked funding, whereby the availability of earmarked funding can bolster the performance of individual projects but at the same time undermine the organizational performance of implementing IDOs. Second, by extending the available data on earmarked funding and linking them to new data on performance, EF-IO will establish whether and how earmarked funding affects the performance of individual projects and their implementing IDOs. To that end, EF-IO will further develop appropriate methodological tools to assess the causal impact of earmarked funding, including structural regression analysis and instrumental-variable designs. Third, through piloting a survey experiment, EF-IO will examine how IDO performance affects aid effectiveness as perceived by country elites. To that end, it will build on a UN-administered survey with recipient-country elites. Aside from contributing to several strands of social-scientific research, findings from EF-IO will inform the policy debate on earmarked funding. By providing fresh evidence on how earmarked funding affects the effectiveness of IDOs, it suggests avenues for reform of such funding in view of maximizing the potential of IDOs to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while considering the need for donors to ensure visibility of their development contributions.