The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark has entered into a contract regarding Evaluation of Danida Multi-Bilateral Interventions.

The main objective of the evaluation will be to provide lessons learned for future use of the multi-bi instrument in Danish development assistance.

The evaluation will focus on Danish ‘Programatic’ and ‘Project -type’ multi-bi contributions for development purposes, which are ‘Country specific’. Multi-bi to humanitarian purposes will only be considered to the extent that it is relevant for the assessment of multi-bi contributions for development purposes.

Danish multilateral development assistance has recently been analysed in various studies. These analyses show that Danish development assistance to and through multilateral organizations constitutes an increasing share of Danish development assistance, and that there is a trend away from core to various forms of multi-bi contributions. This trend is not only visible within humanitarian aid, but also in other sectors, and in different Danish partner countries. In 2018, almost half of the Danish multilateral contribution was provided as multi-bi. A similar trend can be found in other DAC countries.

Multi-bi funding is usually understood as earmarked contributions channelled through multilateral organizations, and in OECD’s Creditor Reporting System overall distinctions can be made between ‘Programmatic’ and ‘Project-type’, and between ‘Country-specific’ and ‘Global, regional or sub-regional’ earmarked funding to the multilateral system.

There exists a number of analyses of the background and reasons for delegation of aid to multilateral organizations. A related literature is concerned with modalities of this support, including degrees and types of earmarking, and the effects on the multilateral organizations.

Thus, the background for this evaluation is the increasing use of multi-bi contributions in Danish development assistance. Danish multi-bi contributions have not been evaluated before, and the focus will be on collecting, assessing and summarizing gained experiences of ‘Programmatic’ and ‘Project-type‘ earmarked funding, which is ‘Country specific’. The effects on the multilateral organizations of increased Danish use of earmarking will not be part of the evaluation.