By Judith Ugwumadu | 20 February 2015
The Department for International Development should ask other UK government departments to provide details of their aid expenditure in order to enhance transparency, according to the aid spending watchdog.
In a report issued today, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact looked at official development assistance (ODA) spent by government departments other than DFID. The study responds to concerns that, as the UK fulfils its pledge to spend of 0.7% of gross national income on aid expenditure, the share spent by other departments might also increase and that the quality and focus of UK aid could be compromised.
Its scope covers £140m of ODA spent in 2013 by eight departments, including the Home Office, the Department of Health and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affair, and examined whether objectives were clear and appropriate for the UK aid programme.
ICAI found no evidence that the UK had weakened its ODA reporting practices or that inappropriate activities were being reported as ODA.
But the watchdog said that there was ‘little information’ on non-DFID ODA in the public domain, something that had contributed to stakeholders’ concerns.
Graham Ward, ICAI chief commissioner, said: ‘UK ODA data are published in various forms. There is no single place where the public can find a clear explanation of the amounts and objectives of non-DFID ODA. This has contributed to concerns that inappropriate projects were being classed as UK ODA, although we have not found this to be the case.’
ICAI recommended that DFID request ODA-spending departments to accompany their annual ODA returns with an information note describing, in simple terms, the main activities or types of activity claimed as ODA.
It added that DFID should include this information in an annex to its statistics on international development in order to enhance transparency.
Over the past five years, UK ODA had almost doubled, reaching £11.5bn in 2013, the watchdog said. Across this period, the share of ODA spent by other departments was about 13%.
A DFID spokesman said: ‘We are pleased that the ICAI review recognises the role DFID plays in ensuring other government departments’ ODA spend is poverty-focused and in improving their management of aid programmes.
‘Effective cross-government co-operation on ODA helped make the UK the first G7 country to meet the UN target to spend 0.7% of GNI on ODA in 2013. Investing in overseas development is creating a world that is healthier, more stable and increasingly prosperous.’
