DFID's Performance in 2008-09 and the 2009 White Paper
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House of Commons International Development Committee DFID’s Performance in 2008-09 and the 2009 White Paper Fourth Report of Session 2009–10 Volume II Oral and written evidence Ordered by The House of Commons to be printed 2 March 2010 HC 48-II Published on 11 March 2010 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £16.50 International Development Committee The International Development Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department for International Development and its associated public bodies. Current membership Malcolm Bruce MP (Liberal Democrat, Gordon) (Chairman) John Battle MP (Labour, Leeds West) Hugh Bayley MP (Labour, City of York) Richard Burden MP (Labour, Birmingham Northfield) Mr Nigel Evans MP (Conservative, Ribble Valley) Mr Mark Hendrick MP (Labour Co-op, Preston) Daniel Kawczynski MP (Conservative, Shrewsbury and Atcham) Mr Mark Lancaster MP (Conservative, Milton Keynes North East) Mr Virendra Sharma (Labour, Ealing Southall) Mr Marsha Singh MP (Labour, Bradford West) Andrew Stunell (Liberal Democrat, Hazel Grove) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publications The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at www.parliament.uk/indcom Committee staff The staff of the Committee are Carol Oxborough (Clerk), Keith Neary (Second Clerk), Anna Dickson (Committee Specialist), Ian Hook (Senior Committee Assistant), Vanessa Hallinan (Committee Assistant), and Alex Paterson (Media Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the International Development Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 1223; the Committee’s email address is [email protected] DFID’s Performance in 2008-09 and the 2009 White Paper 1 Witnesses Tuesday 24 November 2009 Page Ms Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, Permanent Secretary, Mr Mark Lowcock, Ev 1 Director General,Country Programmes, Mr Andrew Steer, Director General, Policy and Research, and Mr Richard Calvert, Director General, Corporate Performance, Department for International Development Wednesday 25 November 2009 Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP, Secretary of State for International Ev 22 Development, Mr Andrew Steer, Director General, Policy and Research, and Mr Martin Dinham, Director General, International, Department for International Development List of written evidence Action for Global Health UK Ev 42 All Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS Ev 45 BOND Ev 46 BOND Conflict Policy Group Ev 50 CARE International UK Ev 51 Child Rights Working Group of the DFID/CSO Children and Youth Network Ev 56 Concern Worldwide UK Ev 61 DEA Ev 63 Department for International Development Ev 65; 81; 126 Interact Worldwide Ev 83 International Alert Ev 85 Joint Nature Conservation Committee Ev 90 Jubilee Debt Campaign Ev 92 One World Action Ev 97 RESULTS UK Ev 101 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Ev 106 Saferworld Ev 111 UK Aid Network Ev 115 UK Learned Societies Ev 118 UNICEF Ev 119 Response from DFID to Written Questions from the Committee on the Spring Ev 121 Supplementary Estimate 2008-09 DFID Main Estimate 2009–10: Memorandum to the International Ev 122 Development Committee Annual letter from David Peretz, Chair, Independent Advisory Committee on Ev 127 Development Impact to the Secretary of State for International Development Letter from the Secretary of State for International Development responding Ev 128 to the annual letter from the IACDI Chair Processed: 05-03-2010 18:33:58 Page Layout: COENEW [SO] PPSysB Job: 440749 Unit: PAG1 International Development Committee: Evidence Ev 1 Oral evidence Taken before the International Development Committee on Tuesday 24 November 2009 Members present Malcolm Bruce, in the Chair John Battle Mr Mark Lancaster Mr Nigel Evans Andrew Stunell Witnesses: Ms Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, Permanent Secretary, Mr Mark Lowcock, Director General, Country Programmes, Mr Andrew Steer, Director General, Policy and Research, and Mr Richard Calvert, Director General, Corporate Performance, Department for International Development, gave evidence. Q1 Chairman: Good morning and thank you very Ms Shafik: Yes, we will. What we have done is we much for coming in on this, our annual session have actually developed quite a detailed reporting relating to the Annual Report. I wonder if you could mechanism for each of the “we wills” that we have introduce your team for the record. committed to in the White Paper and we are now Ms Shafik: I would be happy to. On my right is tracking 160 commitments that we have made with Andrew Steer, who is our Director General for an individual deadline on each one of those in terms Policy and who led the work on the White Paper. of making sure that we deliver on every one of those Mark Lowcock, I think, is familiar to the commitments. Climate change is, arguably, one of Committee; he is the Director General for Country the toughest for us because it is not just delivering a Programmes and runs the bilateral aid programme. set of commitments like the Climate Investment Richard Calvert is the newest member of the Board; Fund, which we have set up jointly with the World he is Director General for Corporate Performance Bank and other donors to begin to show that and he has recently come back to DFID. adaptation and mitigation finance is feasible through the multilaterals, but it also requires us to Q2 Chairman: Obviously, since the last Report, the change the way we do business in DFID by climate- Department has published its White Paper, proofing all of the development interventions that refocusing its strategy particularly on fragile states. I we invest in. Andrew Steer has been leading that think it is fair to say that there has been a fairly good work of thinking about how to inject climate into the welcome to that and people appreciate where the DNA of DFID and perhaps he would say a couple Department is coming from, but, on a practical of words about that. basis, what eVect will this have on the way the Mr Steer: I think it is necessary for us still to climb Annual Report is produced because clearly, if a new up the curve quite a bit on climate change. I think we strategy has been identified, then one presumably are proud of what we have done in the last couple of would wish to reflect in an annual report how that is years, but, looking forward, it is no longer possible being implemented and delivered? to be a serious development agency and not take this Ms Shafik: Yes. The White Paper will be reflected in very, very seriously indeed, so we had a change future annual reports, but we have chosen to embed programme which is above and beyond the the commitments that we have made in the White individual deliveries and there are climate change Paper in our divisional performance frameworks champions throughout the organisation. We meet and into our normal reporting channels, so the regularly, we try to hold each other accountable and commitments that we deliver in the White Paper will we are trying to raise the sort of technical knowledge be reported within this framework in the future and and influencing skills associated with that. will be intrinsic in everything that we do. Q5 Chairman: The other thing is that you said that you were going to put 5% of the budget into Q3 Chairman: So you will be changing your strengthening accountability. performance indicators to reflect that? Ms Shafik: Yes. Ms Shafik: That is correct. Q6 Chairman: How did you calculate that figure, Q4 Chairman: If you take climate change, for what was the basis of coming to that figure, and how example,when we ask DFID oYcials about climate does that compare with what you are currently doing change, they say, “Oh, yes, yes, it’s part of the and what eVect does making that commitment have? programme”, but, when we say specifically, “What Ms Shafik: Well, that commitment came out of a are you doing that is proactively building climate criticism of DFID which came out of the evaluation change into the development strategy?”, if I am of budget support, which was done by many donors honest, I am not sure that we always get a clear a couple of years ago which said that, in some ways, answer, so do you feel that you are going to be able by doing budget support, we had become too close to do that in the future? to governments, that we sort of had lost contact with Processed: 05-03-2010 18:33:58 Page Layout: COENEW [E] PPSysB Job: 440749 Unit: PAG1 Ev 2 International Development Committee: Evidence 24 November 2009 Ms Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, Mr Mark Lowcock, Mr Andrew Steer and Mr Richard Calvert the need to hold governments firmly to account. The then what proportion of the total aid programme do 5% number, there is nothing magic about that, it is a those numbers actually represent so that I can get target that we set because we thought that was a some indication of the shift? realistic number in terms of what we should be doing Ms Shafik: The amount we spent last year was about and it would cover things like strengthening £1.2 billion on the fragile states which was about parliaments, strengthening the role of civil society 50% of our bilateral programme, and our and the media and other accountability institutions, commitment in the White Paper is to continue that like national audit oYces around the world.