Bilateral Donors ’ Efforts to Assess and Manage UN Agencies ’ Effectiveness: Seeking a Balance between Paris Principles and Domestic Accountability

Since the turn of the century, results orientation and performance measurement have become buzzwords in development aid. Bilateral donors are increasingly concerned about the effectiveness of core-funded UN specialised agencies, funds and programmes, through which they channel a substantial part of their funds. While the logic for increased monitoring is clear, it is less evident how to assess this information for purposes of accountability, performance-based funding and governance. This article describes the general evolution in this area and discusses two major initiatives to harmonise and align bilateral assessments, using case-study material from three bilateral donors (Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK) with clearly diverging performance-management cultures, and exploring the extent to which they rely upon joint and aligned initiatives