International Organizations and Differentiated Universality: Reinvigorating Assessed Contributions in United Nations Funding

Abstract

This article examines the link between universality aspirations of international organizations and member state funding by focusing on the United Nations system. Centering on financial input as a key proxy for ownership and collectively shared responsibility, we show that the UN Scale of Assessments has provided a surprisingly stable formula for calculating obligatory membership fees in the regular budgets of the UN Secretariat, Specialized Agencies, and other UN entities. We argue that the Scale of Assessments embodies a commitment to differentiated universality as it applies to all member states while considering key differences among them, notably their levels of per capita income and debt burden. While large parts of UN budgets currently depend on voluntary contributions by a small number of wealthy member states and thus stray far from universality ambitions, we suggest that assessed contributions are an underexploited tool for operationalizing multilateral universality in an uneven world. We propose four concrete measures for strengthening and expanding the use of assessed contributions that can contribute to making the UN system a more universally owned set of international organizations.

Comprehensive power shifts in the making: China's policy transfer partnerships with the United Nations

“…Relative to its voluntary financial contributions to UN entities, China is likely to continue to punch above its weight, also through the multifaceted venues for the exercise of power—institutional, structural and productive—its policy transfer partnerships offer. If China's trajectory at the UN continues in line with insights from the last decade (Haug et al., 2024, this volume), Chinese influence is likely to grow on all fronts, intensifying shifts across all power types and contributing to broader changes at and beyond the UN system.…”

“…In what follows, we introduce the power dynamics at play in transfer partnerships and, building on power (shift) literature (Barnett and Duvall, 2005; see Haug et al., 2024, this volume), offer a four‐legged conceptualisation of power shifts that serves as the central heuristic for our analysis. We then provide an overview of the evolution and key characteristics of China–UN partnerships, focusing on China's trajectory as a provider of development‐related policy solutions.…”

“…Our analysis contributes to the examination of power regarding changes in China's engagement patterns over time, also considering the evolving trajectories of other member states. In line with the Special Issue Introduction (Haug et al., 2024, this volume), we build on a four‐legged heuristic to analyse how and to what extent China's policy transfer partnerships with the UN contribute to shifts in four types of power: compulsory, institutional, structural and productive.…”

Personnel power shift? Unpacking China's attempts to enter theUNcivil service

“…4 Although in comparison, if we treat each entity in each year as one unit, there are 68.6% of total entity-years during 2018-2022 that the United States was among the top five staff contributing countries, and 87.1% of total entity-years during 2018-2022 that the United States was among the top ten contributing countries. 5 For more information on the dynamics between assessed contributions and voluntary funding, see Haug et al (2022); on China, see Zhang and Jing (2024, this volume). 6 Zheng and Fan (2022, p.152).…”

From developing country to superpower? China, power shifts and the United Nations development pillar

“…As of 2022, China contributes more than 15 per cent to the UN's regular budget as the second‐largest contributor in this modality (United Nations, 2023; see Mao, 2020; Zhang & Jing, 2024, this volume). As obligatory fees, and contrary to voluntary resources, assessed contributions cannot be used to pressure the organisation directly, but politically they do increase a donor's clout in budget negotiations (Haug et al, 2022).…”