The UN and Development: From Aid to Cooperation

15. The Contribution of the UN System to International Development Cooperation

fifteen The Contribution of the UN System to International Development Cooperation n Generating and Maintaining Norms n Development Funding n Long-term Planning of Development Activities n Reforms of the UN Development System n A Convergence of Development Policy? n Power and Policies within an Egalitarian Organization n Real Aid n At the End of the Road In previous chapters we have followed the UN in its role as a generator of ideas and visions concerning development, emphasizing one of the major instruments in this regard—development cooperation. Attention has also been directed to its role as an operator in this field, emphasizing its main instrument: the United Nations Development Programme and its predecessors. The system’s many other development arms have been viewed mainly from this central perspective, with the exception of another major actor, the World Food Programme. Naturally, such a centralized perspective cannot do justice to the role various other institutions have played within their more specialized policy areas in developing ideas and following them up. Several of these institutions have their own documented histories.1 In this volume, we have sought to capture the main ideas generated and implemented within the UN system, though those specific to the Bretton Woods institutions have been included only marginally. Indeed, in our narrative the Bretton Woods institutions have been portrayed more as competitors to UN institutions than part of the extended family to which they belong. In these previous chapters, conclusions have been drawn with regard to the UN system’s policies and its achievements over almost sixty years. 482 n The Lost Decade and a New Beginning This concluding chapter focuses on the specific contribution of the UN system in those areas where the system has made a difference. During the six decades covered in this study, the world has changed more dramatically than perhaps in any previous period, involving both its more-developed and less-developed parts. Against that backdrop, it is amazing that most of the major norms that were pursued at the beginning of the road are still at the top today. The language of “development” and “aid” has remained much the same. Promoting development in the large group of LDCs is still identified as challenge number one. Objectives to be pursued—such as human rights, democracy, and participation—are conceptualized in terms that portray a commonly agreed content reality. In policy discourse, these and other key concepts in major policy documents are seldom problematized. Participation, for example, over the years has been referred to as a valuable norm in almost all major UN resolutions involving development and taken as a given (involving “all”). What does it mean, given the reality on the ground—participation for whom? The people in positions of power (people with resources) in the academic and private sectors? Democracy does not mean the same everywhere. Generating and Maintaining Norms The UN system’s two main pillars—promoting peace and promoting development—are placed on an unequal footing. While the Security Council may be able to enforce its decisions involving peace and security (should the major powers agree), promoting development, although it is strongly emphasized in the Charter, cannot be enforced. Recognizing this is essential for analyzing and assessing the policy and performance of the United Nations and its various arms. Contributions to development are voluntary. Naturally, this affects the approaches to obtaining the necessary resources and the ways those resources are to be used. The UN is able only to a limited extent to generate funding for its development activities on its own (although it began to do so in the 1990s). Thus, it remains almost totally dependent on contributions from outside, first and foremost from its member governments. It is necessary to persuade member governments to contribute in order to secure resources for development. Trust, therefore, becomes the sine qua non for the organization and its many development arms—and here its image as an operator becomes crucial. A good image constitutes a necessary (albeit not sufficient) precondition: member governments have to be convinced that the task is worthwhile The Contribution of the UN System to International Development Cooperation n 483 and sufficiently important for them to contribute. This is true for both bilateral and multilateral development assistance, although the opportunities involved may be different. When development assistance was first initiated, most of the industrialized countries were in the process of recovering from a world war, while a...