Multilateral Effectiveness in a Shifting Landscape

The reform of multilateral institutions has been an ongoing process to ensure their relevance in addressing global challenges. The G20 Roadmap (2024) emphasised reforming multilateral development banks, while the UN has pursued a series of initiatives—starting with management reform in 2017, followed by UNDS reform in 2018 and the UN 2.0 Initiative in 2023. The momentum for transformation gained further emphasis in 2024 with the Pact for the Future, through which Member States committed to fostering a more agile, responsive, and resilient United Nations, aiming to revitalise global cooperation and improve governance structures.

Building on previous reform efforts, the UN80 Initiative has been launched in 2025, focusing on refining operational efficiencies, reviewing expanded mandates, and identifying deeper structural reforms. In line with this agenda, the humanitarian sector has also seen renewed efforts for change, with the Humanitarian Reset (2025), spearheaded by Tom Fletcher, aiming to reduce inefficiencies and bureaucracy in crisis response while empowering Humanitarian Coordinators.

With growing global demands and expanding mandates, the UN system faces extreme pressure under severe resource constraints. This raises concerns about its ability to adapt and remain effective. The proposed MOPAN Insights products will serve multiple purposes: the primary purpose is to (i) support donors and members states—particularly MOPAN members—in making informed policy decisions, as well as (ii) guiding multilateral organizations in responding to evolving global challenges, and (iii) contributing to policy dialogue and decision-making on reform efforts, especially within the UN system reform agendas.

Four products are proposed:

· A mapping of measures taken by MOs in response to global funding cuts, as well as illustrative insights into vulnerabilities and potential system-wide policy and operational implications. The mapping will be a public product to be produced by autumn 2025, with a potential update in 2026 depending on ongoing relevance.

· Three short Thematic Briefs will be produced in 2025 to offer rapid analyses on key reform topics – efficiency, comparative advantage and collaboration, and results - that are of interest for MOPAN members and contribute to the discussion of ongoing reform initiatives – in particular the UN80 Initiative – and future reform efforts, relevant to both UN and non-UN organisations.  The Briefs will use findings from MOPAN assessments as a starting point to explore the following themes:

        o   Efficiency: This brief will offer insights into elements of efficiency within different multilateral organisations as well as system wide. This would include looking at organisational approaches to resourcing and management of resources, operational processes and systems in support of efficiency and evaluative evidence of efficiency at the intervention level. The brief could feed into the first and third UN80 workstream.

        o   Comparative advantage and collaboration: This brief will yield insights on how different organisations have strategically defined their comparative advantage, and subsequently designed their partnerships and collaboration. It will also look at how organisations assessed by MOPAN have contributed to strengthening country-level coordination, and what lessons can be drawn for future improvements to the UN Resident Coordinator system. This could feed into the three UN80 workstreams, in particular the third workstream on structural change and realignment.

        o   Results/mandate implementation: This brief will analyse available evidence of performance against stated objectives; contributions towards common goals, and the relevance of results to mandates. It will also analyse how results and related targets are formulated and measured. The brief could feed into the UN80 workstream on mandate implementation.