Meetings of Multilateral Institutions What They Are and Do

These large international meetings of special purpose institutions like the World Bank or World Trade Organization can seem summit-like. As with summits, civil society representatives may attend these meetings as observers, but with many of the same constraints imposed on access and participation as may be found at official U.N. summits, if not more. Like summits, the meetings of multilateral financial institutions are convened for the purpose of reaching agreement on a specific topic through intergovernmental negotiations. So a donor might wish to fund NGO participation in such a meeting for much the same reason as for a summit: to monitor and try to influence governmental positions and the outcome of the negotiations. Since each multilateral financial institution tends to hold its meeting on an annual or periodic basis, grant makers might fund NGOs to attend more than one meeting, and, as with summits, track the actions of governments and the institution itself during the interim. Also, in addition to supporting grantees to try to connect with and contribute to the negotiation of specific agreements, donors may wish to support grantee efforts to try to improve the overall transparency of these processes.