Attempted Change: Recent Attempts to Transform the International Development Financing Architecture

The previous chapter has outlined an international development system defined by continuous transformation and by growing complexity. Its institutional architecture, constructed in an earlier era when international aid policies were a straightforward matter of project identification, financing and management, has evolved into a dense and at times almost impenetrable forest of development assistance organizations. The demands on these organizations have expanded in a virtually exponential manner such that today they are challenged to operate simultaneously at global, regional and grassroots levels; to function in new and ever-expanding partnership arrangements with decentralized authorities, the private sector, bilateral, multilateral and NGO agencies; to decentralize and increase operational strengths ‘on the ground’, while simultaneously reducing operating expenses and administrative costs; and to embrace and operationalize a myriad of often incompatible or conflicting priorities. Many are simultaneously criticized for ‘mission creep’ and urged to assume larger roles in new areas and respond to a greater variety of concerns.