Introduction: Budgeting in the UN System

This chapter introduces the main debates that this book contributes to and outlines how various disciplines—Public Administration and International Relations, Public Policy and Political Economy—look at budgeting, and, in particular, how these relate to the changing system of international cooperation and of international organizations. Scholars and practitioners alike question how far states still come together in today’s IOs to prioritize solutions for global challenges and whether states are able to provide sufficient and reliable resources for IOs to address these matters. Nowhere is this as visible as in budgeting dynamics of IOs. This is evidenced in the shifts that United Nations system budgeting has faced for more than seven decades, most notably the change to the increased importance of earmarked voluntary contributions in the financing of present-day UN organizations.