The Multilateral Aid Review
The Multilateral Aid Review

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-09-19

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13: 9780102977271

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This report finds that the multilateral aid review is a significant step towards the Department being able to improve the value for money from its spending through these organisations which totalled £3.6 billion in 2011-12. The Department's 2011 review, which assessed 43 organisations, was a more thorough and comprehensive process than previous assessments. The review was valuable: both for providing accountability to UK taxpayers and for promoting reform in the multilateral organisations themselves. It enabled the Department to show international leadership. The review rated nine organisations as 'very good' value for money for UK aid, 16 as 'good', nine as 'adequate' and nine as 'poor'. Funding to those organisations it rated as 'good' or 'very good' will increase from 74 per cent of the total in 2010-11 to 77 per cent in 2014-15 and fund for four of those it rated as 'poor' value will cease. However, international agreements limit the extent to which the Department can change its funding. It is important, therefore, that it has co-ordinated, up-to-date plans on how it will use the review to drive performance improvements in each organisation. While the assessment framework compared well with recognized models for assessing value for money in organisations, the guidance to assessors did not always ensure consistency and some organisations found it difficult to fulfill all the evidence requirements. Organisations rated as 'very good' did not need to meet a minimum set of standards and their cost-effectiveness was not always compared to alternative delivery methods

Multilateral Aid Review
Multilateral Aid Review

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. International Development Committee

Publisher: Stationery Office/Tso

Published: 2013-07-01

Total Pages: 59

ISBN-13: 9780215061256

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This report raises concerns about the Government's capacity to monitor multilateral organisations in countries where the Government has no bilateral aid programmes of its own. During the Government's first Multilateral Aid Review (MAR) in 2011, the staff conducting the review only visited two of these countries; for the next MAR, the report recommends that more of these visits be conducted. The MPs also argue that the Government should compare multilateral organisations with the value for money of the UK's own bilateral aid programmes. Following the first MAR in 2011, the Government drew up funding plans for 39 international organisations: such funding accounted for 42% of the entire budget of the UK's aid agency, the Department for International Development (DFID), in 2012. Yet for 35 organisations out of 39, the Government failed to draw any comparisons with the value for money of the UK's own, bilateral aid programmes, making it difficult to know whether bilateral aid or multilateral aid represented better value for money. The MPs recommend that these comparisons be an 'integral part' of the next MAR. In addition, the MPs recommend that the Government conduct regular reviews of its own, bilateral aid programmes. The MPs also say that the Government's methodology for assessing international organisations leaves room for improvement. They argue that the first MAR failed to adequately distinguish between the different mandates of the international organisations being assessed. In addition, the report recommends that the next MAR specifically assess multilaterals' commitment to tackling violence against women and girls.

The Department for International Development
The Department for International Development

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2013-02-11

Total Pages: 42

ISBN-13: 9780215053435

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Multilateral organisations can play a very valuable role in development; they often work in politically sensitive areas, can offer economies of scale, broker international agreements and set international standards. The Department for International Development (the Department) funds a range of these organisations to deliver its objectives. It spends almost half of its total aid budget on core funding for multilateral organisations, amounting to £3.6 billion in 2011-12. The Department published a Multilateral Aid Review (the Review) in March 2011, which assessed the value for money of 43 multilateral organisations in achieving departmental objectives. Refinements to the Review process will allow the Department to build on its successes and improve the effectiveness of future Reviews. These include pressing multilateral organisations for better data on costs and results, better assessment of gaps and duplication in their activities, and strengthening the link between a multilateral organisation's performance and the Department's funding. Collaborating with other countries on reform programmes and sharing assessments will help the Department to maximise the impact of the Review process and minimise the administrative burdens on multilateral organisations. The Department's overall budget for international aid will increase by 27% in real terms between 2010-11 and 2014-15. Public confidence in the value of UK aid depends on the Department demonstrating that the funds are well spent. Better comparisons between the cost-effectiveness of bilateral aid and multilateral aid will allow the Department to determine which approach is best placed to deliver its outcomes.

Financial management report
Financial management report

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2011-04-06

Total Pages: 42

ISBN-13: 9780102969665

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Sound financial management will be essential at the Department for International Development as its spending increases by a third over the next four years. The Department has put important building blocks in place; however its financial management is not yet mature. The Department cannot yet assess important aspects of the value for money of the aid it has delivered, at an aggregated level. The Department's programme budget will grow by £3.3 billion from 2010-11 to 2014-15 (34 per cent in real terms). At the same time, its administration budget is going to reduce by a third. The Department has increased the number of finance professionals it employs, but this expertise needs to be used more effectively across the business. In addition, new financial information systems do not yet provide the data needed to support well-founded decisions and forecasts are still an area of weakness. After a thorough review the Department now has a high level plan. Along with actions to strengthen measurement of aid projects, this has the potential to help strengthen the focus on aid results and value for money. But key risks need to be managed and a single strategy for doing so is needed. With greater spending in higher risk locations and more fragile states more must be done to assure that fraud and corruption risks are minimised. Although the level of reported fraud is low, it is likely to be under-reported. The NAO has found that the investigation of fraud is reactive and the Department does not attempt to quantify its estimated likely fraud losses

UK Aid
UK Aid

Author: Great Britain: H.M. Treasury

Publisher:

Published: 2015-11-24

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13: 9780101887892

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Government recognises that aid spending has sometimes been controversial at home because people want to know that it is squarely in the UK's national interest. Recent crises have proved, though, why aid is so important for us as well as for the countries we assist. The 2015 Spending Review is therefore being used to fundamentally review how this budget is spent. Spending will be shaped according to four strategic objectives. The strategy sets out how, as a result of the new approach, we will: allocate 50% of all DFID's spending to fragile states and regions; increase aid spending for the Syrian crisis and the related region; end all traditional general budget support - so we can better target spending; use an expanded cross-government Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) to underpin our security objectives by supporting the international work of the National Security Council (NSC); create a £500 million ODA crisis reserve to allow still greater flexibility to respond to emerging crises such as the displacement of Syrian refugees; fund a new £1 billion commitment to global public health (the "Ross Fund") which will fund work to tackle the most dangerous infectious diseases, including malaria. The fund will also support work to fight diseases of epidemic potential, such as Ebola, neglected tropical diseases, and drug resistant infections; and use a new cross-government Prosperity Fund, led by the NSC, to drive forward our aim of promoting global prosperity.

Development Co-operation Reviews
Development Co-operation Reviews

Author: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 72

ISBN-13: 9786610030286

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The OECD Development Assistance Committee's 1998 review of the UK's development aid programs and policies. It finds that the United Kingdom is changing its approach to international development policy. The new British Government, elected in May 1997, has created a Department for International Development (DFID), headed by a Secretary of State within the Cabinet. This body has a much wider range of responsibilities than its predecessors, notably in ensuring the coherence of all British policies affecting development. For the first time in two decades, the government issued a White Paper on International Development. This document commits the government to the goal of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015, along with other key international development goals. In its triennial review of British aid policies and programmes, the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) welcomed the United Kingdom's new policies. It viewed the creation of DFID, with its broader responsibilities covering the whole range of bilateral and multilateral aid, the emphasis on strengthened international co-ordination, and the new role in securing consistency across all British policies affecting development as promising steps. The DAC also noted that in focusing its efforts on the eradication of extreme poverty, DFID, like its DAC partners, will need to emphasize the shaping of its programmes and the testing of their outputs with respect to their impact on the poor.

Beyond a Fringe
Beyond a Fringe

Author: Andrew Mitchell

Publisher: Biteback Publishing

Published: 2021-10-12

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1785906992

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A Times Political Book of the Year A Daily Mail Political Book of the Year A Guardian Political Book of the Year An Independent Political Book of the Year Veering from the hilarious to the tragic, Andrew Mitchell's tales from the parliamentary jungle make for one of the most entertaining political memoirs in years. From his prep school years, straight out of Evelyn Waugh, through the Army to Cambridge, the City of London and the Palace of Westminster, Mitchell has passed through a series of British institutions at a time of furious social change – in the process becoming rather more cynical about the Establishment. Here, he brilliantly lifts the lid on its inner workings, from the punctilio of high finance to the dark arts of the government Whips' Office, and reveals how he accidentally started Boris Johnson's political career – an act which rebounded on him spectacularly. Engagingly honest about his ups and downs in politics, Beyond a Fringe is crammed with riotous political anecdotes and irresistible insider gossip from the heart of Westminster.