Department for International Development annual report 2007 PDF Download

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215037329
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
The Committee's report reviews the Department for International Development's 2007 annual report (HCP 514, session 2006-07, ISBN 9780102945195), focusing on issues of efficiency and effectiveness. The Committee welcomes the increase in the DFID's budget under the Comprehensive Spending Review Settlement for 2008-11, in line with the target of 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income to be allocated to Official Development Assistance by 2013. However, it notes the significant challenge for DFID in using this funding effectively when it is also required to reduce its administrative costs, and therefore staff numbers, at a time when its focus is shifting increasingly towards fragile states where providing assistance is resource-intensive. Concerns are raised that DFID continues to emphasise inputs rather than outcomes, although DFID's new Public Service Agreement Delivery Agreement and the plans to establish the Independent Advisory Committee on Development Impact should make it easier to identify whether DFID's expenditure is effective in reducing poverty in developing countries. Four areas for improvement in DFID's work are highlighted relating to gender equality, climate change, governance and agricultural development.

Author: Great Britain: Department for International Development
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102945195
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 786

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Book Description
This annual report details the work and expenditure of the Department for International Development (DFID) during the period April 2006 to March 2007, working as part of the wider international effort to tackle world poverty and promote the sustainable development of low-income countries. The report includes chapters on: reducing poverty in Africa and Asia and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals; making the multilateral system and bilateral aid more effective; fragile states, conflicts and crises; environment, climate change and natural resources; and working with others on policies beyond aid. The assessment of progress is structured around the DFID Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215556240
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description
In the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review the Coalition Government announced its decision to achieve the internationally agreed target of providing 0.7 percent of Gross National Income as ODA from 2013. This will involve spending an additional 2.5 billion pounds in 2013-14 to make the total DFID budget 11.3 billion pounds in that year. There will be a large increase in spending on fragile and conflict affected states and it will be difficult to ensure that every pound is well spent in such war-torn environments. When scrutinising DFID's accounts the MPs were also surprised to discover that the Pope's visit was paid for in part by money supposed to be for overseas development aid (ODA). The Committee expects a response from the Government as to what the £1.85 million, transferred to the Foreign Office for the papal visit, was spent on and an explanation as to how this was ODA compliant. The Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) announced reductions in DFID's running costs to 2% of the total budget. If achieved, this would make DFID the most cost-efficient development organisation in the world.This is to be achieved by a large reduction in back office administration costs (which excludes front-line staff) of £34 million over the CSR period. The International Development Committee supports the proposals to make savings in back office staff, but the MPs are warning that Ministers must ensure that reduced administration budgets do not affect the ability to deliver aid programmes on the ground. While declining as a share of total costs, running costs will increase in real terms over the next four years because the total budget will rise so much.

Author: Great Britain: Department for Transport
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780101726627
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
Dated December 2007

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. International Development Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215526472
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Book Description
The Department for International Development's (DFID) objectives continue to focus on achievement of the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals with the overarching aim of poverty reduction. This focus remains valid. However, on current trends most of the Goals will not be met by the 2015 deadline. The prospects for achieving Millennium Development Goal 2 on universal primary education by 2015 concern the Committee. To meet the target of all children completing primary education by 2015, universal access to schooling will need to be in place by 2010. The necessary schools will therefore have to be built and teachers trained in less than two years. The global economic downturn may exacerbate the risk of failure if development assistance levels are not maintained and donor commitments on aid are allowed to lapse. In straitened economic circumstances it is vital that every pound spent achieves the maximum impact, not least so that public support for aid expenditure can be maintained. The Committee is not convinced that DFID's evaluation processes allow it to make an accurate assessment of what its funding is achieving. The Independent Advisory Committee on Development Impact has begun to improve evaluation within DFID. This process must continue with the full engagement of the Department. DFID's ability to deliver its objectives is beginning to be constrained, despite its rising budget, by the Government-wide requirement to reduce its administrative budget and therefore the number of staff it employs. The Government should urgently reassess whether DFID has sufficient staff in place effectively to deliver the objectives which it has assigned to the Department under its Public Service Agreements.

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. International Development Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215020574
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
The Committee's report examines the accountability and management of the UK aid budget by the Department for International Development (DFID) based on its 2004 departmental report (Cm. 6214, ISBN 0101621426) published in May 2004. It comments on the UK's development record over the past year and highlights several areas where the DFID could improve its performance. Conclusions drawn include support for the Government's increased aid budget, the announcement on multilateral debt relief, and the progress being made to increase the poverty focus of the UK's bilateral aid budget. Recommendations include: the departmental report should include more information about the poverty focus of multilateral organisations, such as the EU; the roll-out of the Poverty Reduction Budget Support must be evidence-based; and the DFID should improve its 'traffic light' system for showing progress on its public service agreement targets.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215526274
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This report is the Committee's annual review of how the FCO is managing its resources, examining the departmental annual report for 2007-08 (Cm. 7398, ISBN 9780101739825). Chapters cover: new strategic framework; performance measurement; global network; essential services; FCO Services; personnel issues; transparency and openness; financial management; public diplomacy and communication; the British Council; the BBC World Service. The Committee is concerned that the FCO is facing serious financial pressures in this financial year due to the Treasury's withdrawal of its support for the Overseas Pricing Mechanism (OPM) which used to protect departments from the weakening of sterling. There is a risk that the FCO may not be able to meet higher international subscriptions over the next two financial years, causing its performance against Public Service Agreement targets to suffer. The likely increase in the UN Regular Budget and other international subscriptions will push this figure even higher. The FCO should have to shoulder the financial burden from within its already tight budget to pay for subscriptions which also benefit other Government departments. The Committee recommends that additional nondiscretionary costs should properly be met by the Treasury.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215544582
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 70

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Book Description
DFID is right to focus more resources on fragile states if global poverty reduction goals are to be met. However, this report highlights a number of concerns about DFID's capacity to meet this and other new policy directions set out in the 2009 White Paper (Cm. 7656, ISBN 9780101765626), based on analysis of the Department's performance in 2008-09 (the Department's annual report 2008-09 published as HC 867-I,II, ISBN 9780102962154). Climate change, another key White Paper focus area, threatens progress on poverty reduction and will hit the poorest people first and hardest. The outcome of the Copenhagen Conference in December 2009 was disappointing and real progress needs to be made before the next conference at the end of this year. The White Paper also indicates that DFID will channel more funding through multilateral organisations including the EU, the UN and the World Bank. This offers the prospect of more coordinated delivery of aid, but only if these bodies increase their effectiveness and their poverty focus. The report also argues for speedier reform of the governance of the international financial institutions. The recession has had a significant impact on developing countries. It is estimated that an additional 90 million people will be affected by poverty as a combined result of the global food, financial and fuel crises over the last few years. Donors, including the UK, have responded and have sought to identify specific needs in developing countries, though many donors are failing to meet the aid commitments they have already made.

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Foreign Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215544940
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
The FCO departmental report and resource accounts 2008-09 published as HC 460-I,II (ISBN 9780102961614)

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215071751
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
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.