Shifting away from the donor-driven UN: an assessment of the pooled funding mechanism

这个世界需要更强有力的国际机构，尤其是一个更有权威的联合国。从这一信念出发，这一信念得到了最近一项调查研究的支持，并得到了联合国改革的超国家和世界性建议的许多倡导者的赞同，拟议的研究旨在解决目前联合国筹资机制中影响联合国对其成员国权威的最有问题的方面：自愿专用捐款。在对相关学术文献进行审查后，确定集合供资是协调自愿专用捐款与更具权威性的联合国的可能解决办法。然而，目前尚不清楚为什么集合资金与限制性更强、更有害的针对具体项目和方案的专用资金相比，在很大程度上没有得到充分利用。因此，本研究旨在回答以下两个研究问题：第一，与针对具体方案和项目的供资模式相比，为什么集合资金作为联合国获取捐助者自愿专用捐款的供资机制没有得到充分利用？第二，要增加其使用，需要满足哪些条件？为开展这一研究项目所设想的方法将具有很强的经验成分，但也将植根于理论方法。据认为，回答这些研究问题不仅可以填补文献中的一个重要空白，而且有助于找到解决办法，减少捐助方对联合国方案拟订和业务的影响，最终实现一个较少受捐助方驱动、更有权威的联合国。

This world needs stronger international institutions, and most notably, a more authoritative United Nations. Starting from this belief, which is backed by a recent survey study and shared by many advocates of supranational and cosmopolitan proposals of UN reform, the proposed research aims to address what is arguably the most problematic aspect of the current UN funding mechanism affecting the UN authority vis-à-vis its member states: the voluntary earmarked contributions. Following a review of relevant scholarly literature, pooled funding is identified as a possible solution to reconcile voluntary earmarked contributions with a more authoritative UN. However, it is unclear why pooled funding remains largely underused compared to the more restrictive and detrimental project- and programme-specific earmarked funding.This research therefore aims to answer the following two research questions: firstly, why is pooled funding so underused as a UN funding mechanism to acquire donor voluntary earmarked contributions compared to the programme- and project-specific funding modality?; and secondly, what are the conditions to be met in order to increase its use?The methodology envisaged to conduct this research project will have a strong empirical component but will also be rooted in theoretical approaches. It is believed that answering the research questions will not only allow to fill an important gap in literature, but also contribute to finding solutions to decrease donors' influence on UN programming and operations and ultimately achieve a less donor-driven, more authoritative UN.