Multi-bilateral aid for disease control

A growing portion of aid directed through multilateral channels is earmarked for specific recipients and purposes, giving donors greater control, also known as multi-bilateral aid. This project examines competing explanations of donors’ use of this multi-bilateral aid for different problems within the same sector, specifically development aid for disease control. Using explanations from the literature on multilateralism and principal-agent dynamics, I compare donors’ use of multi-bilateral and bilateral delivery of disease-specific foreign aid. The results suggest that while donors deliver a greater portion of aid through multi-bilateral channels for larger, more complex problems, they are reluctant to delegate issues that most affect their populations.