Australian Multilateral Assessment

The Australian Multilateral Assessment (AMA) looked at the effectiveness of 42 multilateral organisations, including United Nations agencies and global and regional development banks funded through the Australian aid program.

Around 40 per cent of Australia’s aid budget is currently delivered through multilateral organisations. The government has committed to ensure that funding is delivered to organisations that are effective and relevant to Australia’s aid objectives.

The AMA provides information that the Australian Government will use to guide future decisions on funding and to ensure that it delivers development results for the world’s poorest people.

The AMA found that for 29 of the 42 organisations assessed, the Australian Government could have a high degree of confidence that increases in funding represent value for money.

Other key findings were:

• coordination is improving across the multilateral system but more is needed
• the UN ‘Delivering as One’ approach should become the norm
• joint assessments of multilateral effectiveness can be strengthened
• 15 of the 42 organisations assessed have reform efforts underway
• organisations are investing heavily in their capacity to measure and report on results
• in some cases more focus is needed on ‘value for money’ and cost effectiveness
• effectiveness varies at country and regional levels

This is the first time the Australian aid program has undertaken such a comprehensive assessment of multilateral funding.

More information

Australian Multilateral Assessment (AMA) webpage

View the full AMA report here

View the list of all 42 full assessments here

Last Reviewed: 30 March, 2012