RESUMEN
Policy makers are committed to delivering more and better aid in pursuit of an increasing number of development-related goals. These commitments have led to new pressures on the multilateral system. At the country-level, in line with the Paris Declaration, multilateral agencies are striving to coordinate better their activities, as a proliferation of actors and financing instruments has led to high and hard-to-manage transaction costs. Within agencies, efforts are being made to improve performance assessment and evaluation, in order to ensure a greater focus on results. Their performance is also being placed under increasing scrutiny by bilateral funders. Developing countries need support in dealing with the growing complexity of multilateral development finance. It has become clear that, whilst an abundance of financers and instruments has given recipient countries more choice in financing their development, many lack the governance structures and administrative capacity to exercise this choice effectively. Improving coordination processes at the country level would help reduce the transaction costs for both recipient countries and donors. Prof. Reisen’s presentation will map the rising complexity in current development finance, discuss the cost arising from that complexity to recipient countries, weigh the policy challenges to Western donors, and present some reform ideas.