Multilateral aid
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Multilateral Agency Partners
Children with a UNICEF food parcel in Afghanistan. Supporting multilateral agencies such as UNICEF enables NZAID to extend its outreach and impact globally.
Multilateral agencies and programmes provide an effective mechanism by which countries such as New Zealand can reduce poverty, conflict, governance issues, and humanitarian crises worldwide. Multilateralism also offers a higher degree of impartiality to smaller countries than bilateral relationships,
especially when dealing with sensitive issues.
Some issues in development are best addressed at a global level, such as the establishment and monitoring of international norms and standards (such as the maintenance of human rights, and the protection of refugees) and the provision of global public goods (for example the reduction of greenhouse gases). With this goal in mind, New Zealand works in partnership with other donors and organisations such as the United Nations, the Commonwealth, international financial institutions, and international voluntary agencies.
By engaging with multilateral agencies and institutions, NZAID is able to extend its outreach and impact globally, and to have its voice heard in global fora where international good practice is established and agreed in the areas of international development, human rights, humanitarian assistance and international financing for development.
In 2008/09 NZAID's overall budget for multilateral development assistance was approximately $86.6 million. NZAID spent almost 33 percent of its programme budget on multilateral agencies, either through core-funding, bilateral programmes or regional programmes. Core funding (annual ‘core’ payments to multilateral agencies from NZAID) alone represents approximately 20 percent of NZAID overall budget.
Through an assessment process NZAID has reviewed its support for international agencies. This resulted in ten multilateral agencies becoming prioritised for increased engagement, including annual core funding.
Top ten multilateral agencies
United Nations Development Programme | UNDP
United Nations Children's Fund | UNICEF
UN Fund for Population Activities | UNFPA
UN High Commissioner for Refugees | UNHCR
UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights | OHCHR
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs | OCHA
World Bank | International Development Association
The multilateral system
Multilateral processes and agencies are created, governed, funded and run by the governments of the world on behalf of their respective citizens. Small countries like New Zealand benefit most from an international order based upon agreed laws, standards and norms. It is important for New Zealand to participate actively in the multilateral system to input its values and principles, and to contribute its fair share of the costs. In fact, New Zealand has been a key player in the creation of the multilateral system, and is a longstanding supporter of the system and its core instruments.
The global development community has set itself a challenge to achieve the agreed international development targets and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), by 2015. It is crucial that we collectively aim to halt and reverse deepening poverty by addressing challenges such as gender-based disparities, the threat of HIV and AIDS, climate change and responding to humanitarian crises resulting from conflict and natural disasters.
Due to their nature, economies of scale, or political sensitivities, many of these challenges can only be addressed meaningfully at the multilateral level. Multilateral agencies are able to mobilise resources and expertise on a scale and at a cost that no individual country could provide. An effective multilateral system, supported by the international community, is critical to future prospects of addressing the above mentioned issues, as well as making progress in attaining the MDGs.
NZAID's Multilateral Engagement Strategy (MES)
NZAID's engagement with the multilateral system is about participation in collective action aimed at supporting sustainable development and reducing poverty through the realisation of internationally established and agreed human rights for all. It is also about fulfilling our role as a good international citizen. As a small donor, our intention is to engage substantively with a small number of agencies that work in areas in which we feel we can make a difference.
The MES has been developed to provide a framework for NZAID's multilateral funding, policy and programming partnerships in an environment of limited resources and a large range of potential multilateral partners. The MES outlines the goals and objectives of NZAID's multilateral engagement, the outcomes being sought and the strategies that will be adopted to achieve those outcomes.
This is a 'whole of agency' strategy that encompasses NZAID's bilateral, regional and multilateral partnerships with international agencies. It includes partnerships with other New Zealand government departments, civil society and the New Zealand public.
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