Explaining the performance of international organizations in policy implementation

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Steffen Eckhard
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 555246548

International organizations (IOs) are key players in tackling global policy challenges. They have been central to some of humanity’s greatest achievements, such as the eradication of contagious diseases, the reduction of extreme poverty and global access to basic education. Increasingly, however, the organizations of the liberal international system are the focus of criticism and politicization. The research project aims to explore the consequences of these dynamics for the performance of IOs in policy implementation. Although a number of case and comparative studies at the organizational level already exist, the data and instruments for comparative research on IOs in policy implementation - that is, at the level of projects and programs - have been lacking until now. The research project aims to close this crucial gap. It focuses on the compilation of a comprehensive corpus of over 25,000 publicly available evaluation reports from 42 IOs of the United Nations system and the analysis of this data using current techniques of computer-assisted text analysis. Against this background, the project pursues four interrelated objectives: 1. Empirical and methodological development: The project creates and publishes a comprehensive data set with a large number of quantitative performance measurements based on evaluation reports. This dataset will be analyzed and annotated using computer-based natural language processing. Even beyond the research questions of this project, it offers a valuable resource for research on international organizations. 2. Conceptual and theoretical innovation: The project breaks down the concept of organizational performance into several dimensions and explores how these are influenced by political and bureaucratic factors in the context of increasing politicization and legitimacy pressures. Particular attention is paid to clarifying potential conflicts of interest between the short- and long-term dimensions of performance. 3. Scientific development: At the interface of literature on international relations and public administration, the project further develops the still young research on ‘international public administrations (IPA)’ and cooperates closely with colleagues from the field of international relations. 4. Practical transfer: The data and methods will provide practitioners with new ways of measuring policy outcomes and assessing the learning outcomes of IOs. Against this background, the applicant cooperates with organizations such as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which ensures the practical applicability and dissemination of the knowledge gained. Overall, the project makes an important contribution to improving the global governance of IOs and their transparency.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants