DFID Annual Report 2008
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House of Commons International Development Committee DFID Annual Report 2008 Second Report of Session 2008–09 Volume II Oral and written evidence Ordered by The House of Commons to be printed 10 February 2009 HC 220-II [Incorporating HC 945-i, -ii and -iii of Session 2007-08 Published on 19 February 2009 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 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) John Bercow MP (Conservative, Buckingham) Richard Burden MP (Labour, Birmingham Northfield) Mr Stephen Crabb MP (Conservative, Preseli Pembrokeshire) Mr Mark Hendrick MP (Labour Co-op, Preston) Daniel Kawczynski MP (Conservative, Shrewsbury and Atcham) Jim Sheridan MP (Labour, Paisley and Renfrewshire North) Mr Marsha Singh MP (Labour, Bradford West) Andrew Stunell (Liberal Democrat, Hazel Grove) Ann McKechin (Labour, Glasgow North) and Sir Robert Smith (Liberal Democrat, West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) were also members of the Committee during this inquiry. 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), Ben Williams (Assistant Clerk), Anna Dickson (Committee Specialist), Chlöe Challender (Committee Specialist), Ian Hook (Senior Committee Assistant), Vanessa Hallinan (Committee Assistant), Miguel Boo Fraga (Committee Support 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] Witnesses Wednesday 9 July 2008 Page David Peretz, Chairman, Anthony Killick, Committee Member and Robert Picciotto, Committee Member, Independent Advisory Committee on Development Ev 1 Impact Alison Girdwood, Evaluation Department, Department for International Ev 1 Development Tuesday 15 July 2008 Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, Permanent Secretary, Mark Lowcock, Director General Country Programmes and Sue Owen, Director General, Corporate Ev 11 Performance, Department for International Development Tuesday 30 October 2008 Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP, Secretary of State for International Development; Martin Dinham, Director General International, and Andrew Ev 28 Steer, Director General Policy and Research, Department for International Development List of written evidence 1 Department for International Development Ev 46; 58; 60; 91 2 ActionAid UK Ev 61 3 BOND Disability and Development Working Group Ev 65 4 Joint memorandum submitted by the Coalition Of Women Living with Ev 65 HIV/AIDS (Malawi),Malawi Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (Malawi) and One World Action (UK) 5 Joint memorandum submitted by Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Ev 67 FARM-Africa, Harvest Help and Send A Cow 6 Médecins du Monde UK Ev 70 7 One World Action Ev 71 8 Prospect Ev 72 9 RESULTS UK Ev 75 10 Saferworld Ev 80 11 Save the Children UK Ev 80 12 World Vision Ev 83 13 Yara International Ev 85 14 First annual letter from the Chairman of the Independent Advisory Ev 88 Committee on Development Impact (IACDI) to the Secretary of State for International Development 15 Reply from the Secretary of State for International Development to the first Ev 91 annual letter from the Chairman of IACDI List of unprinted written evidence Processed: 13-02-2009 18:41:37 Page Layout: COENEW [SO] PPSysB Job: 408061 Unit: PAG1 International Development Committee: Evidence Ev 1 Oral evidence Taken before the International Development Committee on Wednesday 9 July 2008 Members present Malcolm Bruce, in the Chair Richard Burden Jim Sheridan Mr Stephen Crabb Sir Robert Smith Daniel Kawczynski Witnesses: Mr David Peretz, Chairman, Mr Anthony Killick, Committee Member, and Mr Robert Picciotto, Committee Member, Independent Advisory Committee, and Ms Alison Girdwood, DFID Evaluation Department, Department for International Development, gave evidence. Q1 Chairman: Good morning, Mr Peretz, and your indication of how your committee goes about its colleagues. Thank you for coming to give evidence work in answering those kinds of questions. You to us. We had said at the time when Hilary Benn were part of that discussion at the ODI, but do you announced the establishment of your committee accept that that is a good starting point for both that we would, in due course, take evidence from DFID and for your work as an independent you. I think it has taken slightly longer than we committee? intended, but it also fits into the report we will be Mr Peretz: I think it is a fine starting point. It is a doing on the department’s Annual Report. Clearly, question of what works and do you learn lessons evaluation is an important part of it. I wonder if you from things which do not work? Could I make one could introduce your colleagues. I guess Alison point at the beginning? I am very glad to have this should be introducing herself as she has a slightly opportunity to meet with the committee, and I hope oblique role in this. we might have a continuing relationship. I am Mr Peretz: I am David Peretz, and I am Chair of the required, as chairman, to write an annual letter to Independent Advisory Committee on Development the Secretary of State and copy it to members of this Impact. Can I call it IACDI for short? Robert committee, which suggests that you might have quite Picciotto is on my left. a role, if you agree with our recommendations, both Mr Picciotto: I am a professor at King’s College, in helping to make sure they get implemented but London, I suppose that I am on the committee perhaps also, and perhaps more immediately, we on because I used to head evaluation at the World Bank the committee would be very interested that your and because I sit on the Boards of the UK concerns, either at this meeting or in other ways, feed Evaluation Society and the European Evaluation into us. One of the things we are going to have to do Society. quite shortly is decide on, or begin to discuss, a work Mr Peretz: Anthony Killick, who is another member programme of evaluations for the next three years, of the committee. and the question of what is to be evaluated is the sort Mr Killick: I am a development economist who has of question on which I would have thought this specialised in Africa and I am a Senior Associate of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in committee might have views. Shall I just give a brief London. sketch of what we have done? Ms Girdwood: I am Alison Girdwood, representing the Evaluation Department at DFID. Q4 Chairman: If you could, briefly. I should say, we are aiming for this session to be around about an Q2 Chairman: Which the committee did visit when hour. we were in East Kilbride last year. Mr Peretz: I will try and be very quick, partly Mr Peretz: The Evaluation Department provides because we are being very transparent and the secretariat and secretarial support for our publishing the minutes of our meetings, which I committee. think you have got, so you will have seen those. One point to make at the beginning is we have seen our Q3 Chairman: Which, I suppose, is a bit of an issue role as covering both evaluations carried out we might want to explore too, but perhaps we can get centrally in the Evaluation Department of DFID into the meat of it. Clearly we are in a situation but also evaluations, some people call them self- where we have a rising aid budget and we need to evaluations, carried out across the department. It is know whether that budget has been eVectively spent, much easier to get a handle on what the Evaluation and a whole raft of questions, obviously, arise out of Department is doing than on what is being done at that. This committee frequently asks the question: the various places throughout DFID, but we are what works and how good is DFID at delivering trying to look at both, and I think, on the latter, what works? I wonder whether you could give an what I would say at this point is my impression is Processed: 13-02-2009 18:41:37 Page Layout: COENEW [E] PPSysB Job: 408061 Unit: PAG1 Ev 2 International Development Committee: Evidence 9 July 2008 Mr David Peretz, Mr Anthony Killick, Mr Robert Picciotto and Ms Alison Girdwood that there is not a very strong culture of self- what works, what does not work. Impact goes evaluation in DFID, there needs to be something of beyond outcomes, and for evaluating impact one a cultural change, and we are thinking about ways needs very sophisticated methods, which are very you could do that. One of our recommendations is close to social research. So it is in these two areas that the central Evaluation Department should have that the committee is going to focus. In order to some role in quality assurance and control over self- generate the kind of knowledge needed for this, you evaluations. So far we have had three meetings.