Both the European Union and multilateral agencies in the United Nations (UN) system are important partners for German development policy. Roughly one third of the official development assistance (ODA) Germany provides is spent for multilateral development cooperation (DC). At the same time,...

The United Nations (UN) development system is well established and ubiquitous in the global development system. Its functions range from providing a forum for dialogue, decision- making and norm-setting, to research, advocacy, technical assistance and humanitarian aid. The UN’s universality...

Two issues will take centre stage at the forthcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20): the prospects for a global “green economy” in the context of poverty alleviation and sustainable development, and the United Nations’ institutional framework for sustainable development....

Since 2007, the UN development system has experimented with new approaches to enhance its coherence, efficiency and effectiveness in eight pilot countries. Similar to other international processes aiming to increase the effectiveness of aid and development policy through coordination, the...

At the upcoming G7 Summit held in Elmau, G7 members should seize the opportunity and push for a successful outcome of the major multilateral events of 2015 dealing with development finance (Addis Ababa), the post-2015 agenda for sustainable development (New York) and climate change (Paris). We...

The post-2015 development agenda will constitute a different mission for UN Development than the current one driven by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Unlike the MDGs agenda, the new sustainable development goals (SDGs) aim to integrate the economic, social and environmental pillars of...

Can the United Nations Development System (UNDS) become a resourceful, well-organised partner for member states in implementing the 2030 Agenda? The UNDS is the biggest multilateral development actor, accounting for $18.4 billion, or 33 per cent, of multilateral aid in 2015. Its functions range...

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) is a key multilateral organisation for development. Since 2015, DESA has had the unique mandate of facilitating the efforts of all UN member states towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by supporting...

Multilateral cooperation means that states can collectively achieve more than they can through individual and bilateral efforts alone. Multilateral organisations are important instruments for this: they have a greater geographic and thematic reach, operate at a larger scale and stand for...

Since 2016, Germany has been the second largest contributor to the United Nations development system (UNDS) for development-related and humanitarian activities, after the United States of America. The biggest increase in Germany's funding has been in the form of earmarked contributions, that is,...