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

EF-IO研究项目将研究专项资金如何影响国际发展组织应对全球发展挑战的有效性。“专项资金”是指捐助国政府向ipo提供的财政捐款，其用途仅限于特定受援国、主题或部门。在过去二十年中，拨给国际开发组织的指定资金增加了十倍，这导致人们越来越关注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以及国际开发组织之间对资金的不健康竞争。除了对个别ipo的案例研究外，我们对专项资金对ipo的影响的了解有限。在此背景下，EF-IO追求以下研究目标：—开发一个理论框架，以理解指定资金对ipo的各种影响；——建立专项资金、组织绩效和项目绩效之间的复杂关系；-检查IDO性能与IDO有效性之间的关系。为了实现这些目标，EF-IO将使用一种多方法方法，结合对与发展利益相关者进行的40次半结构化访谈的定性分析，对不同分析级别的大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将利用与40多个IDO利益相关者的半结构化访谈来确定专用资金的“微观-宏观悖论”的普遍性，即专用资金的可用性可以增强单个项目的绩效，但同时破坏实施IDO的组织绩效。第二，通过扩大关于指定资金的现有数据并将其与关于执行情况的新数据联系起来，EF-IO将确定指定资金是否以及如何影响个别项目的执行情况及其执行方案。为此目的，基金组织将进一步发展适当的方法工具，以评估指定资金的因果影响，包括结构回归分析和工具变量设计。第三，通过试点调查实验，EF-IO将研究IDO绩效如何影响国家精英所认为的援助有效性。为此，它将以联合国对受援国精英的调查为基础。除了为社会科学研究的几个方面做出贡献外，EF-IO的研究结果还将为关于专项资金的政策辩论提供信息。通过提供关于专项资金如何影响国际公开发行组织有效性的新证据，本报告提出了改革此类资金的途径，以期最大限度地发挥国际公开发行组织实现2030年可持续发展目标的潜力，同时考虑到捐助方确保其发展捐款可见性的必要性。

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.