Multilateral aid

Multilateral organisations are usually governed by member countries, though the influence each country has is not always equal. The structure of each multilateral organisation is important in determining where aid money goes and the conditions attached to the money. The structure also determines which countries have the most influence and which countries have little say at all.
 
There is a tendency for rich countries to give more money to multilateral development banks such as the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), where voting is weighted and they can have more influence over where the aid money goes and less to the United Nations agencies where voting is equal and less of the money is returned to the donor countries.

For example, in 2006-07, Australia gave more than $203.2 million to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, as compared to $60.6 million to UN agencies.
 
Multilateral aid like bilateral aid can come with strings attached. The WB and ADB are particularly notorious for implementing conditionalities that have major structural consequences for recipient countries. You can read more about these conditionalities and their impacts in this section.
 
Multilateral aid organisations have been criticised for being undemocratic. In addition, they have been cited as overly bureaucratic and detached from the places where their aid money ends up. Lastly, one of the major criticisms of multilateral aid organisations is that they fund big development projects such as dams, roads, and power stations sacrificing local livelihoods where smaller projects would be more appropriate.

This section explores how the Australian government is contributing to the myriad of problems associated with multilateral organisations. It also gives suggestions as to what YOU can do to stay informed on these issues.