Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average percentage of overseas development assistance that they disburse through non-governmental organisations that reaches its intended recipients; what percentage of such funding is spent on administration costs; and what steps they are taking to increase the percentage of such funding that reaches its intended recipients.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are important partners for DFID in ensuring that UKAid reaches intended recipients, particularly the most marginalised groups. Approximately 10% of UKAid in 2018 was channelled directly through NGO partners.
DFID’s approach to programme delivery ensures this funding is well targeted. A Business Case must set out why the programme represents value for money and how this will be measured. Before funds are dispersed, a due diligence assessment is conducted to ensure the NGO partner has the capacity to deliver. Each programme is then monitored throughout its life, with formal annual reviews ensuring that progress and value for money are sustained and that any management fees remain appropriate.
On 1 April this year, DFID published a new approach to cost transparency in NGO grants. A new budget template and guidance will ensure that DFID has full sight of, and is able to scrutinise, all costs being paid to CSO partners through grants and standardises our approach to paying overheads. However, the exact information requested on administration costs is not held centrally and could only be collated at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to support UK companies that are developing blockchain technology for the delivery of major international development contracts.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
DFID is committed to best practice in the use of new digital technologies and we have set a vision for doing development in a digital world in our Digital Strategy. We have commissioned several reports to understand the effectiveness and potential of emerging blockchain technologies for international development. DFID also has several proof of concept pilots in design and implementation to test the potential of blockchain in, for example, humanitarian supply chains, tracking of UK aid funds, and to incentivise and reward environmentally sustainable farming practices. DFID is learning from these pilots and other projects to ensure that the UK remains at the cutting edge of delivering aid.
DFID’s contracts are tendered in accordance with the EU Public Procurement Directive and the UK Public Procurement Regulations 2015, the focus of which is to ensure open and fair competition between bidders. This means our contracts are competitively tendered following a set of standard processes set out in the regulations. This competitive approach helps ensure value for money in the delivery of UK aid. British companies have continued to be very successful in this competitive market with UK firms winning 80% of our contracts in 2018/19.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to help fund the further assessment and development of blockchain technologies for major infrastructure and international development projects, and (2) to ensure that the UK remains a centre of excellence and is a preferred jurisdiction for such contracts.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
DFID is committed to best practice in the use of new digital technologies and we have set a vision for doing development in a digital world in our Digital Strategy. We have commissioned several reports to understand the effectiveness and potential of emerging blockchain technologies for international development. DFID also has several proof of concept pilots in design and implementation to test the potential of blockchain in, for example, humanitarian supply chains, tracking of UK aid funds, and to incentivise and reward environmentally sustainable farming practices. DFID is learning from these pilots and other projects to ensure that the UK remains at the cutting edge of delivering aid.
DFID’s contracts are tendered in accordance with the EU Public Procurement Directive and the UK Public Procurement Regulations 2015, the focus of which is to ensure open and fair competition between bidders. This means our contracts are competitively tendered following a set of standard processes set out in the regulations. This competitive approach helps ensure value for money in the delivery of UK aid. British companies have continued to be very successful in this competitive market with UK firms winning 80% of our contracts in 2018/19.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to making full use of the capabilities of blockchain-based smart contracts to protect the supply chain and ensure that major international aid and development projects are fully transparent, and that funding is secure.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
DFID is committed to best practice in the use of new digital technologies and we have set a vision for doing development in a digital world in our Digital Strategy. We have commissioned several reports to understand the effectiveness and potential of emerging blockchain technologies for international development. DFID also has several proof of concept pilots in design and implementation to test the potential of blockchain in, for example, humanitarian supply chains, tracking of UK aid funds, and to incentivise and reward environmentally sustainable farming practices. DFID is learning from these pilots and other projects to ensure that the UK remains at the cutting edge of delivering aid.
DFID’s contracts are tendered in accordance with the EU Public Procurement Directive and the UK Public Procurement Regulations 2015, the focus of which is to ensure open and fair competition between bidders. This means our contracts are competitively tendered following a set of standard processes set out in the regulations. This competitive approach helps ensure value for money in the delivery of UK aid. British companies have continued to be very successful in this competitive market with UK firms winning 80% of our contracts in 2018/19.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for International Development:
Her Majesty's Government whether they would support future regionalisation of the Pillars of the Cotonou Agreement.
Answered by Lord Bates
The UK government has supported calls for a differentiated and more regionalised approach during EU discussions on the successor to the Cotonou agreement. While the future agreement will come into force after our exit from the EU, we remain interested in what will be a major element of the global development architecture and will continue to participate in the discussions while we remain an EU Member State.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much funding the Department for International Development transferred to the EU over and above their fixed aid related contribution.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The UK makes fixed ODA contributions to the EU budget and the European Development Fund (EDF) each year. In addition to this funding, where DFID doesn’t have the expertise or resources to deliver a major programme itself, it will work locally with partners who can do this including the EU.
As set out in DFID's 2015 Statistics on International Development publication, in addition to these fixed ODA contributions, DFID provided £20,378,000 to the EU in 2014 for two infrastructure programmes in Africa. These are both helping to promote trade within Africa and boost local economies, building markets that Britain can trade with which is firmly in our national interest.
In both cases the EU is the best partner with the necessary capacity and technical expertise to carry out these large infrastructure programmes. Details of all such bilateral programmes are published on devtracker.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether there is still a development case for bilateral aid for India and Turkey; and whether they have plans to end bilateral aid to those, and similar, countries.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The UK does not have a bilateral aid programme in Turkey. We help Turkey address the consequences of the Syria crisis and migration challenges as the country hosts the highest number of refugees in the world, by providing support to refugees in Turkey, jointly with international partners.
The UK’s bilateral aid programme in India has changed with India’s development. A middle-income country and major trading partner, India is still home to one third of the world’s poorest people. The UK ceased its traditional aid programme to India in 2015, and our support now focuses on promoting inclusive economic development, both reducing poverty and strengthening UK trade and investment opportunities.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Department for International Development overspent their budget in the last financial year, and if so, for what reason.
Answered by Baroness Verma
In 2014-15, the most recent year for which audited accounts are available, the Department for International Development did not overspend its budget.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what mechanisms the Department for International Development has in place to monitor the quality and real developmental impact of their aid programmes.
Answered by Baroness Verma
DFID has rigorous programme and financial management procedures and systems in place. This government has significantly strengthened these procedures and systems, placing a strong emphasis on ensuring programmes are high quality and deliver value for money and real development impact. Each DFID project is rigorously appraised before approval to establish value for money. During implementation, projects are measured against a robust monitoring framework through mandatory annual reviews to ensure they remain cost effective and are delivering expected outputs, outcomes and development impact. The results of these annual reviews are scored by the managing team and are then monitored through regular management information reports to management and Ministers. We take decisions to exit underperforming programmes and redirect resources into those that deliver poverty reduction and value for money for taxpayers.
DFID is also committed to generating high quality evidence through independent evaluations which look in detail at the impact that our interventions are having and what lessons can be learnt for the future. In addition the Independent Commission for Aid Impact assesses the effectiveness of DFID’s programming.