The post World War II developmental efforts through the United Nations Organization's Development Programme were based on the premise that the greatly differing developing countries were themselves the best judges of their own development priorities. The last ten years, however, have seen a tendency by some donor governments to either tie their share of multilateral assistance to their own perception of the priorities, or to limit their support in the multilateral context, in favour of increasing bilateral aid and special purpose arrangements.
Access of countries to financial facilities available through intergovernmental bodies, such as the International Monetary Fund, is subject to strict conditionalities, high cost and may only be available for the short term.
Measures intended to intensify integration into the capitalist world system, confirm the primacy of capital and guarantee its global valorization, result in an increasing number of countries, particularly in the Third World, being forced by intergovernmental financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to adopt measures which are in direct opposition to the interests of the majority of their populations.