Accountability in Development Aid Law: The World Bank, UNDP and Emerging Structures of Transnational Oversight

Abstract

The article analyzes accountability mechanisms in development aid law, defining development aid law as the legal regime regulating the transfer of official development assistance. It focuses on the rules of two multilateral donor institutions, the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program. It also examines the accountability mechanisms pertaining to the recipients of aid, since the transfer of aid involves not only a donor but also a recipient.The article first conceptualizes the notion of ‘accountability’ for legal analysis and flashes out the non-legal context of the transfer of development aid. On that basis it goes on to argue that there is a surprising plenitude of accountability mechanisms that go well beyond the conventional mechanisms of supervisory control of International Organizations by member states. Instead, such mechanisms involve several actors, standards and types of sanctions. However, the article also asks whether these mechanisms add up to a coherent system, give voice and access to the relevant constituencies and thus achieve a satisfactory standard of accountability. Finally, the article connects its findings to the wider discussion on the emergence of an international or global administrative law.