Download or read book House of Commons International Development Committee The Independent Commission for Aid Impact s Annual Report 2012 13 Volume I HC 566 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Independent Commission on Aid Impact (ICAI) was established in May 2011 with a strategic aim to provide independent scrutiny of UK aid spending, to promote the delivery of value for money for British taxpayers and the maximisation of the impact of aid. ICAI reports directly to Parliament through the International Development Committee, which established a sub-Committee on the work of ICAI in October 2012. This has worked well, and has helped foster closer working arrangements that promote the sharing of ideas between IDC inquires and the evaluations that ICAI undertakes. ICAI's Annual Report 2012-13 was generally well-received, as was the Commission's overall performance over the past year. The Annual Report published ICAI's budget for the first time and another excellent innovation was a section following up recommendations made in ICAI's Year 1 reports. ICAI should include a more detailed assessment of the impact of UK aid, including overarching lessons for DFID and should do more to promote lesson-learning across evaluations. This could be done by seminars and outreach events following each evaluation, which would help improve knowledge dissemination, both to DFID and the wider development community. A clear message this year was that DFID must think more strategically about its management of large contracts, especially those with multilateral agencies, nongovernmental organisations and contractors. This seems a fundamental criticism of the Department given the significance of these relationships. DFID should pay closer attention to how it selects external agencies as implementing bodies, and how much it pays for their services.

Download or read book HC 741 Appointment of the Chief Commissioner of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Chief Commissioner of ICAI has a crucial role in scrutinising aid spending by the UK Government and reporting to Parliament through the International Development Committee. The Committee are pleased to endorse the appointment of Dr Alison Evans to this post, but recommend that at least one of the existing Commissioners be reappointed for a further term to ensure continuity, and that one of the Commissioners be an audit professional. The selection process used resulted in an unranked list of four candidates deemed "appointable" being presented to the Secretary of State for consideration. This puts too much power in the hands of the Secretary of State for an independent scrutiny post and threatens to undermine the candidate in the eyes of the public who may assume that the candidate most sympathetic to DFID was chosen. The Committee recommend that panels for ICAI Commissioner appointments should be invited to rank candidates or otherwise advise the Secretary of State as they see fit. In the longer term, it is recommended that the Committee be able to choose the Chief Commissioner from the list of candidates.

Download or read book HC 523 The Independent Commission for Aid Impact s Performance and Annual Report 2013 14 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-09-05 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Independent Commission on Aid Impact (ICAI) is an independent commission which reports to the House of Commons International Development Committee, not to the Department for International Development (DFID). The Committee ensures its accountability to Parliament in two main ways: through a sub-Committee, which takes evidence on the reports published by ICAI; and through an inquiry each year carried out by the full Committee into ICAI's Annual Report. 2013-14 has been a busy year for ICAI, with 12 reports published on a wide range of DFID's activities. ICAI's Annual Report contained three headline findings for DFID this year. Firstly, tighter management of multilateral partners is needed. Secondly, DFID needs to continue to improve its aid programme management capacity, especially where contractors are implementing programmes. Thirdly, DFID's corporate results agenda - and in particular its use of 'reach indicators' - is distorting programming choices. The Committee shares ICAI's concerns on these issues and intend to follow up its recommendations in two forthcoming inquiries this autumn: Beyond Aid; and DFID's Departmental Annual Report 2013-14. DFID spends a large amount of money - at least £200 million - on self-evaluation. However, it cannot provide an exact total. The Committee question this large expenditure, especially given that an ICAI evaluation recently found that DFID staff struggle to use self-evaluation material in their work. The contracts of the current ICAI commissioners, contractor consortium and staff all end in May 2015. While staff contracts may be renewed, new commissioners and contractors must be recruited. Planning is underway for the transition to the next phase of ICAI: all possible efforts must be made to ensure this goes as smoothly as possible.

Download or read book HC 1138 International Development Committee The Legacy Parliament 2010 15 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the end of the 2010-2015 Parliament approaches, the Committee has taken the opportunity to look back on their work. This Report outlines some of the Committee's work, progress and effectiveness during this Parliament and sets out areas that may be of interest to their successor committee. It has also provided the opportunity to scrutinise what actions the Government has taken with regard to issues and recommendations raised in our reports.

Download or read book House of Commons International Development Committee The Closure of DFID s Bilateral Aid Programmes The Case of South Africa HC 822 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-01-08 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2010 the Department for International Development (DFID) undertook reviews of both its support for multilateral organisations in its Multilateral Aid Review (the MAR) and of its bilateral aid programmes in a Bilateral Aid Review (the BAR). As a result of the BAR, DFID decided to close a number of country programmes following criteria set out in the review. The Department published, in March 2011, the priorities and expected results for the countries where bilateral programmes were to continue. Yet 18 months and two years after that publication, the Department announced that bilateral programmes with India and South Africa would come to an end in 2015. The Secretary of State has not convinced the Committee that the announcement to end the programmes in India and South Africa were in accordance with the principles and process established by the BAR. Such decisions to end a bilateral programme or to start a new one should be made only following a Bilateral Aid Review, except in exceptional cases. Concerns remain about the timing of the decisions and, in particular, that they are neither methodical nor transparent, but related to short term political pressures.

Download or read book House of Commons International Development Committee Implications for Development in the Event of Scotland Becoming and Independent Country HC 692 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-12-19 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The UK's aid programme, much of which is delivered from Scotland, is genuinely transformational. The UK provided £8.7 billion of aid in 2012/13, but it is the quality of this aid - not just its quantity - which sets the UK apart. As part of the UK, Scotland makes a tremendous contribution to all this. If Scotland were to become an independent country, its development agency would inevitably be a much smaller player. From 2013 onwards, the UK Government plans to spend 0.7% of Gross National Income on Official Development Assistance. If Scotland were to become independent, the UK's overall GNI - and the amount of money it spends on ODA - would fall. "Scotland has 8.3% of the UK's population share, so we estimate that the UK's ODA would fall by around 8.3%, or £1 billion. DFID's work - either its bilateral programmes or its funding to multilateral organisations - would inevitably then be subject to cuts. MPs are also concerned that during any transitional period, the restructuring of DFID and the setup of an independent Scottish development agency would divert management attention towards restructuring and away from frontline delivery by both agencies. In addition, a significant proportion of DFID's workforce is based at its Scottish office in East Kilbride, including a number of senior staff. By contrast, the number of jobs available with an independent Scottish development agency is likely to be relatively few (or the new Scottish development agency would be heavily overstaffed). The impact on jobs would therefore be substantial.

Download or read book Department for International Development s Performance in 2012 13 Departmental Annual Report 2012 13 HC 693 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-04-30 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report is the International Development Committee's annual review of UK aid programmes and the administration of the Department for International Development (DFID). The Committee finds that field work overseas should be given greater priority and Ministers must explain UK spending on humanitarian projects more clearly. DFID should not provide funds to support disasters in middle income countries by raiding bilateral development programmes in low income countries. Other wealthy OECD countries must play their part in providing humanitarian assistance. DFID should set out annually its provisional budget for humanitarian relief, what is held as contingencies for unpredictable events and how it will be deployed if not called upon. There has also been a decline in DFID's spending on budget support, the consequences of which should be assessed. £1,075 million of DFID's bilateral expenditure is spent through multilaterals and private contractors. DFID has put in place a number of changes to improve the value for money provided by spending through and should report on their effectiveness. The Committee is also worried that the Department actually spends 40% of its budget in the last two months of the year, which raises questions about the smooth running of management and planning processes. DFID staff should have longer postings overseas (normally a minimum of four years) so that they can develop a deeper understanding of the culture and politics of the country they are working in and engage more effectively with the country's politicians.

Download or read book Department for International Development annual report and resource accounts 2010 11 and business plan 2011 15 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-03-09 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While DFID's total budget is increasing, the Department will both restrict operating costs to 2% by 2014-15 and reduce its administrative costs by a third in real terms, from £128 million in 2010-11 to £94 million by 2014-15. This report warns that capping operational costs and staff numbers may not reduce overall costs or improve effective delivery of development assistance. The International Development Committee also raises concerns that cost pressures are driving DFID to use consultants to deliver its programmes, rather than in-house expertise. The Department spends £450 million on technical cooperation per year. Much of this is good work, yet it was unclear exactly what this money was spent on, or how effective it was and the extent to which external providers were used. DFID needs to improve its assessment of which projects and services it should use consultants for; and assess more carefully the use of consultants to manage the Department's own delivery programmes. In its efforts to reduce administrative spending DFID might be 'exporting' these costs to other organisations, including NGOs and multilateral aid organisations, with higher real administration costs. The Department should assess the best and most effective way to deliver development assistance as it may be able to do it more cheaply and effectively than external organisations. The report recommends that the Department improves its tracking of and reporting on the total cost of administering its aid programme with the aim of quantifying how much aid actually ends up reaching recipients.

Download or read book HC 750 Department for International Development s Performance in 2013 2014 The Departmental Annual Report 2013 14 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Government response to HC 693, 2013-14 (ISBN 9780215071750). DFID's annual report for 2012-13 published as HC 12, session 2013-14 (ISBN 9780102983241)

Download or read book Disability and Development HC 947 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-04-10 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Disabled people in developing countries are the poorest of the poor: if we are serious about tackling extreme poverty, our development work has to target them. So while it's good the UK government has brought disability on to the agenda for global development goals (1) - DfID must now lead by example and make effort to ensure the needs of disabled people become a clear and sustained priority going forward within its own development programmes. Despite enormous global advances in education and health since the turn of the millennium, disabled people continue to be excluded from the most basic of services. The Committee calls for DfID to: produce a disability strategy; appoint a larger team responsible for disability; and strengthen reporting processes; show much more ambition in its work with disabled people by targeting them and their needs explicitly; give disabled people a central role in its work; and promote attention to the needs of disabled people including making it an explicit requirement that funding reaches disabled people, especially in disaster and conflict situations where they are amongst the most at risk

Download or read book The closure of DFID s bilateral aid programme in Burundi written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-10-28 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department for International Development (DFID) has decided to close its bilateral aid programme in Burundi in 2012. Burundi is a fragile country which has experienced decades of civil war. It is one of the poorest countries in the world and is unlikely to meet most of the Millennium Development Goals. DFID's states that despite such closure, it will: continue funding Burundi both through a regional programme Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA) and multilateral donors (the EU, the World Bank, African Development Bank) to which DFID is a major contributor; that, other donors will take over bilateral programmes which it has been funding and that the cost of the office in Burundi is too high in relation to the size of the programme. The Committee believes though that the Government should reinstate a bilateral aid programme to Burundi for the following reasons, including: that the UK currently has bilateral programmes with all the countries in the Eastern Africa and Great Lakes Region and that the UK's engagement continues to be critical throughout this region both in perception and reality; that Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA), has already helped to increase Burundi's collection of tax revenues; that there are funding gaps in many sectors in Burundi; that there is a regional dimension to conflicts in the Great Lakes area and Burundi is particularly fragile. The Committee states if DFID does cease bilateral aid to Burundi, a responsible exit strategy is the least it can do to minimise the negative consequences.

Download or read book HC 663 The Future of UK Development Co operation Phase 2 Beyond Aid written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The number of low income countries is falling. At the same time, the importance of global issues - conflict, climate, migration, trade, tax, financial stability, youth unemployment, urbanisation economic development, and infectious disease - is rising. The Committee argues that aid remains vital for addressing poverty in poor countries, for encouraging economic development, for providing global goods such as tackling climate change, combating diseases such as Ebola and providing humanitarian assistance, but new forms of co-operation have to be developed in order to meet these challenges. This will include new financial mechanisms and facilitating links with UK institutions in a wide range of areas, including health, education, culture, law, culture and science. This will require the Department for International Development (DFID) to put more emphasis on working with small organisations and less on programme management.As the focus moves away from aid, policy coherence for development must be at the heart of a new approach. This means working across Government in the UK, and with global partners in the multilateral system, to maximise the impact on development of all the UK's actions. This approach and changes will require DFID staff to develop different skills.

Download or read book HC 565 The UK s Development Work in the Occupied Palestinian Territories written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-08-06 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ongoing violence by Palestinian and Israeli extremists does not bode well for peace negotiations for a two-state solution, but as much of the coverage surrounding recent violence has highlighted, restrictions which restrain economic development within the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) remain a key issue for the Palestinians. In particular, as the World Bank made plain in a report last year, there would be scope to raise Palestinian GDP by over 20% if Palestinian businesses were allowed to invest the part of the West Bank controlled by Israel. The conflict between Hamas and Israel and the stalling of the peace talks should not prevent the UK and other European countries from pressing Israel to end unnecessary restrictions. In particular, the Committee challenges the assertion that restrictions which curtail economic development in the OPTs are based on Israel s security needs. The UK should encourage both sides to negotiate to address the disputed issues, including Palestinian access to 3G and 4G services in the West Bank, and greater access to the West Bank aquifer, construction permits, demolitions and master plans. DFID should also support the World Bank programme for helping the Palestinian Authority with land registration. While the Committee welcomes the UK's decision to introduce labelling guidelines for products made in Israeli settlements, they call for a review to examine whether the guidelines have been implemented and to what effect. MPs also strongly support the Palestinian Market Development Programme but also call for the provision of a Sector Grant Facility and Development Impact Bonds in the OPTs

Download or read book HC 247 Recovery and Development in Sierra Leone and Liberia written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sierra Leone and Liberia have made remarkable recoveries since their civil wars. Ban Ki Moon was in Freetown this month to bring an end to the UN Security mission and set the UN presence on a conventional development footing from 1st April 2014. In Liberia there has been a gradual drawdown of the peacekeeping mission which will approximately halve the UN military presence by 2015. However both countries remain fragile with high unemployment and concerns about corruption. The devastating Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and Liberia demonstrates the dangers of ignoring the least developed countries in the world. The weak state of the health system in both countries has greatly reduced the effectiveness of the response to Ebola. There is an alarming lack of capacity in the health system, including a shortage of skilled clinicians.The Committee have determined that the scale of the Ebola crisis now unfolding in Sierra Leone and Liberia, may well be connected to declining levels of international support for health system improvements in what remain two of the poorest and least developed countries in the world.

Download or read book South Sudan written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-04-12 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Republic of South Sudan gained independence from the Republic of Sudan on 9 July 2011, following civil wars that began in 1955 and left more than two million dead. Challenges faced by the new government are daunting with some of the worst social indicators globally. The Department for International Development has quickly established and scaled up a full office in Juba and developed a four-year development and humanitarian aid programme amounting to some £360 million making South Sudan one of the largest recipients of UK bilateral aid. Regrettably, the delivery of DFID's programme is already at risk before it has properly begun with the humanitarian crisis created by the loss of South Sudan's oil revenue, combined with the increasing number of returnees and refugees arriving in the country and ongoing inter-tribal violence. The South Sudan government has introduced austerity measures to cope with the loss of 98% of its income but the UK, and other donors, cannot bankroll South Sudan through this austerity period. DFID has already re-focussed its development programmes away from long-term development towards supporting the most vulnerable people and saving lives. Overall, the Committee believes that DFID's programme is diverse and challenging, although it is too early to judge its success. There have been well-documented difficulties with both World Bank and UN administered pooled funds in South Sudan and there is concern at channelling aid through them. The emphasis that DFID gives to the equality of girls and women in its programme is welcomed and, despite the pressures and uncertainties this should be maintained

Download or read book DFID s role in building infrastructure in developing countries written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-10-07 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The International Development Committee reports that DFID can be proud of much of the work it does to build infrastructure in developing countries - on which the Department spends £1 billion annually. But it calls on Ministers to improve monitoring of infrastructure spending through multilateral organisations, such as the EU, World Bank and African Development Bank. The UK should also insist on provisions in large multilateral infrastructure projects which require local capacity building in order to boost local employment and the private sector with developing countries. The MPs also raise concerns that infrastructure construction in developing countries is particularly prone to corruption. The report points to DFID's success in helping to establish the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST) to counter corruption, which has proved effective and is to be transferred to the World Bank. DFID should continue to provide the funding and staff time to ensure that CoST can build on the successes of its pilot phase. DFID should publish a departmental strategy on infrastructure. This would help DFID clearly to convey its rationale and priorities within the sector, emphasising that DFID funding is directed to the Department's key priorities within the sector, including the need to build local capacity, implement road safety measures and ensure the use of technologies appropriate to the needs of developing countries. Far more private money is needed to finance large infrastructure projects, and DFID has done well in helping leverage private funding through initiatives such as the Private Infrastructure Development Group.

Download or read book HC 876 Responses to the Ebola Crisis written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ebola outbreak that has stricken Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea since March 2014 has had a devastating effect on the region. By 2 December 2014, more than 17,500 cases and 6,000 deaths had been reported. Ebola has had wider damaging consequences for local economies, food security, institutional stability and the broader health system. The House of Commons International Development Committee says DfID and the World Health Organisation initially failed to recognise the scale and severity of the Ebola crisis and were too slow to respond. This is in part due the WHO's member states, who have cut its funding and failed to emphasise building sustainable health systems in developing countries, leaving the global health system "dangerously inadequate" for responding to health emergencies. It recommends that DfID press for a review of the international approach to health emergencies, incorporating the function, structure and funding of the World Health Organisation and the role and expectations of major donors.