International organisations

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

Development is one of the issues on which the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) stimulates more coordination. Most of the EU Member States are also OECD member.

Hence, the EU can play an important role.

A good example is the Paris Declaration, an agreement at the Paris High Level Forum in 2005 between aid recipients (partner countries) and donors, which aimed to improve the way aid is provided so as to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGSs) by 2015.

The EU is committed to increasing external assistance by 50% over the next five years and to implementing the Paris Declaration. Partners will be measured against agreed targets for a set of 12 indicators covering ownership, alignment, harmonisation, managing for results and mutual accountability.

In addition, the EU has demonstrated its commitment to the process by declaring that it will go beyond the Paris Declaration commitments in a number of areas, agreeing on four additional indicators to follow it up.

Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid follows discussions on aid effectiveness at the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD, with Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid represented in the meetings of the following groups:

Working Party on Aid Effectiveness (WPEFF)
Joint Venture on Public Financial Management
Joint Venture on Procurement
Joint Venture on Monitoring the Paris Declaration

EuropeAid-OECD statistics for 2006 pdf - 26 KB [26 KB]

EuropeAid-OECD statistics for 2007 pdf - 25 KB [25 KB]

EuropeAid-OECD statistics for 2008 pdf - 31 KB [31 KB]

EuropeAid-OECD statistics for 2009 pdf - 25 KB [25 KB]

EuropeAid-OECD statistics for 2010 pdf - 25 KB [25 KB]

EuropeAid-OECD statistics for 2011 pdf - 141 KB [141 KB]

EuropeAid-OECD statistics for 2012 pdf - 143 KB [143 KB]

United Nations

The EU is the single largest financial contributor to the UN system. The EU funds 38% of the UN's regular budget, more than two-fifths of UN peacekeeping operations and about one-half of all UN Member States' contributions to UN funds and programmes.

For its part, the European Commission is also a significant UN partner, contributing over €1 billion in support of external assistance programmes and projects. The financial and contractual aspects of programmes funded by the Commission have been streamlined through the use of the Financial and Administrative Framework Agreement (FAFA). This agreement simplifies all practical aspects of programme implementation. The operation of the FAFA is reviewed annually and, in 2006, this resulted in the addition of an agreement on how to improve visibility, in both beneficiary and donor countries.

Commission support to the UN is grounded in a clear policy towards international organisations. For the UN system, this was first expressed in the Commission’s Communication of 2001 on ‘Building an effective partnership with the UN’, reinforced in 2003 by a further Communication entitled ‘EU-UN relations: the choice of multilateralism’. The intensive European participation in the UN Summit of September 2005 underlined the importance of this relationship.

This cooperation has also resulted in the conclusion of strategic partnerships with several of our UN partners. Seven have been signed to date: with the UNDP pdf - 2 MB [2 MB] (June 2004), WHO pdf - 350 KB [350 KB] and ILO pdf - 321 KB [321 KB] (July 2004),FAO pdf - 243 KB [243 KB] (September 2004), UNHCR pdf - 619 KB [619 KB] (February 2005),WFP [2 MB] (September 2005), UN Women pdf - 389 KB [389 KB] (April 2012) and UNESCO [2 MB] (October 2012). An EU convention existed with UNRWA even before the strategic partnerships were introduced. The Commission has also taken other initiatives that have positively contributed to shaping the evolving relationship with the UN, such as regular high-level meetings with UN principals and action to gain status and role in UN decision-making.

The partnership between the Commission and the UN has many facets, and, in turn, many reasons to engage in common initiatives and programmes. Often the UN is mandated with an international mission in specific crisis situations or is simply best placed to deliver aid on account of its political neutrality, global reach, or specific expertise and capacity. The Commission and the UN have built up a history of successful cooperation in specific thematic sectors, such as election assistance. Cooperation also takes place in areas where both organisations have common policy interests.

Financial contributions to the United Nations 1999-2012:

EuropeAid-UN statistics for 1999-2001 pdf - 94 KB [94 KB]

EuropeAid-UN statistics for 2002 pdf - 108 KB [108 KB]

EuropeAid-UN statistics for 2003 pdf - 252 KB [252 KB]

EuropeAid-UN statistics for 2004 pdf - 162 KB [162 KB]

EuropeAid-UN statistics for 2005 pdf - 224 KB [224 KB]

EuropeAid-UN statistics for 2006 pdf - 313 KB [313 KB]

EuropeAid-UN statistics for 2007 pdf - 439 KB [439 KB]

EuropeAid-UN statistics for 2008 pdf - 507 KB [507 KB]

EuropeAid-UN statistics for 2009 pdf - 442 KB [442 KB]

EuropeAid-UN statistics for 2010 pdf - 533 KB [533 KB]

EuropeAid-UN statistics for 2011 pdf - 855 KB [855 KB]

EuropeAid-UN statistics for 2012 pdf - 975 KB [975 KB]

Financial contributions of all DGs to the United Nations in 2008 pdf - 5 MB [5 MB]

Financial contributions of all DGs to the United Nations in 2009 pdf - 138 KB [138 KB]

Financial contributions of all DGs to the United Nations in 2010 pdf - 533 KB [533 KB]

Website:

The EU and the UN

World Bank

The Commission was the second largest contributor to the World Bank’s trust fund programmes for the period of 2001-05 and it is the largest donor to the ASEM Asian Financial Crisis Trust Fund, Multi-Donor Trust Fund for the post-tsunami reconstruction in Aceh and Nias; to the World Bank Iraq Trust Fund; and to Highly Indebted Poor Countries (debt relief). The Commission is also a major donor to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, and to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Consultations about the Trust Funds and Co-Financing Framework Agreement between the Commission and the World Bank are held annually, to review administrative and operational issues, discuss new mechanisms for joint financing (e.g., grant co-financing, blending), and assess the pipeline of proposals for the following year.

The financial contributions to the WB 2004-2010:

The WB-EC statistics for 2004 pdf - 86 KB [86 KB]

EuropeAid-WB statistics for 2005 pdf - 122 KB [122 KB]

EuropeAid-WB statistics for 2006 pdf - 162 KB [162 KB]

EuropeAid-WB statistics for 2007 pdf - 4 MB [4 MB]

EuropeAid-WB statistics for 2008 pdf - 57 KB [57 KB]

EuropeAid-WB statistics for 2009 pdf - 47 KB [47 KB]

EuropeAid-WB statistics for 2010 pdf - 40 KB [40 KB]

EuropeAid-WBG statistics for 2011 pdf - 208 KB [208 KB]

EuropeAid-WBG statistics for 2012 pdf - 279 KB [279 KB]

Financial contributions of all DGs to the WB in 2010 excel8book - 111 KB [111 KB]

Website:

WB-EU cooperation (WB site)

International Organization for Migration

Financial contributions in 2006 pdf - 53 KB [53 KB]

Financial contributions in 2007 pdf - 46 KB [46 KB]

Financial contributions in 2008 pdf - 48 KB [48 KB]

Financial contributions in 2009 pdf - 33 KB [33 KB]

Financial contribution in 2010 pdf - 35 KB [35 KB]

Financial contribution in 2011 pdf - 147 KB [147 KB]

Financial contribution in 2012 pdf - 164 KB [164 KB]

Other information on International Organisations

In August 2006, Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid completed a review of cooperation with International Organisations pdf - 780 KB [780 KB] . The review highlighted the importance of international organisations as a channel of EC assistance and provided information on the way in which the Commission cooperates with these organisations.

In January 2009, Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid produced an Information Note on Multi-Donor Trust Funds (MDTFs) supported by the Budget. This note was updated at the end of 2009 and again as of June 2010 and transmitted to the European Parliament. The note Note on Multi-Donor Trust Funds (MDTFs) msw8 - 766 KB [766 KB] gives information on the volume of funds involved, why the Commission works through MDTFs and the checks and balances in place. For major trust funds, (those where the Commission contributes at least € 20 million) information is provided on the governance structures, achievements and implementation of the MDTFs.

Assessment of UN organisations in selected countries

By way of follow-up to the evaluation of the Commission's external cooperation with partner countries through the organisations of the UN family, the Commission was encouraged to improve its knowledge of the UN in order to better capitalise on the partnership. This was also the view of the Commission's Internal Audit Service, which asked Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid to periodically perform overall evaluations of UN partners.

Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid decided therefore to assess the performance of key UN partners in countries where the Commission channels a significant volume of funds through the UN by examining a selection of ongoing or recently completed programmes. The countries selected were Bangladesh msw8 - 598 KB [598 KB] and Nigeria msw8 - 558 KB [558 KB] . The assessments looked at the degree of co-ordination and cooperation with UN in terms of policy dialogue and programme design, whether the UN is providing value for money, added value, results, performance and impact, major difficulties experienced with the implementation of programmes and whether there were alternatives to working with the UN.

The reports were completed in November 2009 and provide a useful appreciation of the partnership between the Commission and the UN in these two countries.