Unbridled competition among intergovernmental organizations for scarce resources

Decisions by specialists as to which international agency to join, and decisions by governments as to which to fund, reflect the scarcity of two vital resources for intergovernmental organizations: talented staff and money. Considerable wastage of both is due to overlapping and duplicating structures and programmes. In another sense intergovernmental organizations and agencies are competing for the world's attention and hence for governments' and peoples' time. The excessive number of publications put out during a United Nations Year by the UN and other intergovernmental organizations is an example of this continuing competition.