By Lucy Phillips
23 December 2010
MPs have criticised the government for failing to assess the financial value of its international aid programme for primary education.
A report by the Commons Public Accounts
Committee, published today, highlights ‘significant concerns’ with the
Department for International Development’s ability to assess the value for
money of its primary education programme.
The project aims to improve and expand state learning in developing
countries, particularly sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
The report, The Department for International Development’s bilateral support to primary education, says value for money has not been a primary focus for either allocating resources or assessing the performance of programmes. Too much emphasis has been placed on simply measuring numbers entering education, the MPs say.
The assessment comes as Dfid is one of the few government departments to experience a rise in funding during the current Spending Review period.
The previous government committed to increasing aid spending on education to at least £1bn a year by 2010-11 while the coalition has since pledged to increase the total international aid budget from £7.8bn in 2010-11 to £11.5bn in 2014-15.
PAC chair Margaret Hodge said: ‘What surprised us was the department’s lack of a coherent framework for assessing the impact and value for money of its spending; and its willingness instead to rest claims of overall performance on selective examples and anecdotes.
‘This becomes all the more serious as the Department’s total aid budget increases in real terms by roughly a third between now and 2014-15.'
Hodge called on Dfid to take a ‘tougher,
clearer stance on the performance of the education systems it funds and pupil
attainment’.
However the PAC chair welcomed improvements made by Dfid in increasing primary education enrolment in developing countries. This has risen from half or less of children in the mid-1990s to 70-90% now.
