Chapter 11 Chapter Summary

Governments and non-government actors have increasingly pursued multilateral approaches to a wide range of issues, including those facing lower-income countries. This chapter discussed the rise, and in some cases the decline, of multilateral organizations considered relevant for development (apart from the Bretton Woods and related bodies, which are discussed in other chapters). The chapter highlighted their origins, purposes, operations, and impacts in terms of power and politics. Official multilateral bodies fall into three categories, as distinguished by their geo-political alignments and accountability systems: The United Nations (UN) specialized agencies and programs; global and regional bodies answerable to governments of industrial countries and the Global North; and organizations accountable to non-Western actors. For the first two clusters, a major influence has been the hegemonic power of the United States, whose interests can be detected in these organizations’ development priorities and policy formulas. Many of these agencies and organizations have failed to gain real legitimacy, especially in the Global South. The chapter also called attention to new forms of multilateralism, some of them driven by non-state actors, that are helping create spaces and alternative approaches to development and global governance.