The Multilateral Fund was established by a decision of the Second Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol (London, June 1990) and began its operation in 1991. The main objective of the Multilateral Fund is to assist developing country parties to the Montreal Protocol whose annual per capita consumption and production of ozone depleting substances (ODS) is less than 0.3 kg to comply with the control measures of the Protocol. Currently, 147 of the 196 Parties to the Montreal Protocol meet these criteria. They are referred to as Article 5 countries.

Contributions to the Multilateral Fund from the industrialized countries, or non-Article 5 countries, are assessed according to the UN scale of assessment.

The Fund has been replenished eight times: US $240 million (1991-1993), US $455 million (1994-1996), US $466 million (1997-1999), US $440 million (2000-2002), US $474 million (2003-2005), US $400.4 million (2006-2008), US $400 million (2009-2011) and US $400 million (2012-2014). The total budget for the 2012-2014 triennium is US $450 million: $34,900,000 of that budget will be provided from anticipated contributions due to the Multilateral Fund and other sources for the 2009‑2011 triennium, and that $15,100,000 will be provided from interest accruing to the Fund during the 2012–2014 triennium.

As at November 2011 the contributions made to the Multilateral Fund by some 45 countries (including Countries with Economies in Transition or CEIT countries) totalled over US$ 2.89 billion. The Fund is managed by an Executive Committee assisted by the Fund Secretariat. Projects and activities supported by the Fund are implemented by four international implementing agencies.

The Executive Committee has held 65 meetings since the establishment of the Multilateral Fund in 1990. During these meetings, the Executive Committee approved the expenditure of over US $2.8 billion to support over 6,875 projects and activities in 145 countries to be implemented through the four implementing agencies and by bilateral agencies.

Of the 460,652 ODP tonnes to be eliminated once all these projects have been implemented, a total of 448,808 ODP tonnes had already been phased out by the end of December 2010 (consumption of 256,180 ODP tonnes and the production of 192,628 ODP tonnes).

To facilitate the phase-out by Article 5 countries, the Executive Committee has approved 143 country programmes, and has funded the establishment and the operating costs of ozone offices in 143 Article 5 countries.

Developing countries (Article 5 Parties) with country programmes approved by the Executive Committee need to report data (and other information) on the progress of implementation of their country programmes or their updates to the Fund Secretariat.  Forms for reporting the progress of implementation of country programmes can be downloaded from the Countries section of this website.