The International Development Committee has today launched an open call for potential topics of inquiry in the area of international relief and development.

The Committee invites proposals on what it could investigate next and why, including what action is needed from the Government. Up to 10 individuals will be selected and invited to present their pitch to the Committee, either online or in person. 

The role of the Committee is to examine how the Government’s policy and spending supports lower-income partner countries in efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and improve development. A wide range of policy issues fall within our ‘international development’ remit, but the underlying thread is that they are funded by Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding. Areas include: poverty reduction; humanitarian assistance; conflict, stabilisation and mediation; good governance, rights and equality; education; energy, climate and the environment; global health; food security and nutrition; migration; investment, building trade capacity and exchanging expertise in areas such as science and technology; and the availability of international finance to help meet countries’ development goals.

The Committee seeks ideas to feed into future inquiries from: civil society organisations, including relief and development NGOs, refugee and asylum charities, faith and community groups; academia, research institutions and think tanks; professional services; international organisations; and the wider public. It welcomes applications from the UK and overseas. We particularly want to hear from those who are typically underrepresented in policy debates on international development, such as those with direct experience on the ground, the more vulnerable in society, or those who bring an interdisciplinary approach to their research. 

Join the conversation on X using @CommonsIDC

In 2011, the former Department for International Development (DFID) published its Value for Money framework, setting out how the Department defined Value for Money, and how this was integrated within its work. This framework set out that Value for Money in DFID’s programme meant “maximising the impact of each pound spent to improve poor people’s lives”, and outlined the intention of DFID to “improve the Value for Money of all aid”, not just DFID’s own. No similar framework has been published by the FCDO since DFID merged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 2020.

This inquiry will consider not just how the FCDO defines Value for Money and how this is implemented within its programming, but also its use of financing instruments to ensure that ODA achieves maximum impact.

Join the conversation on X using @CommonsIDC

Taking protection of humanitarian workers, the Aid Worker Security Database reports that in 2023, 280 workers died delivering aid. Of the 595 aid workers killed, injured or kidnapped that year, 95% were staff local to the crisis. In terms of humanitarian access, ACAPS assessed that between November 2022 and June 2023, crisis-affected populations in 37 countries were experiencing “extreme access constraints”, up by 5 on the previous period.

This inquiry will seek to understand what the UK Government is doing to address the root causes of this problem through encouraging parties to adhere to IHL. It will also examine how provision for the protection and support of aid delivery workers is built into the Government’s funding arrangements with delivery partners.

This is an opportunity for the Committee to receive oral and written evidence on efforts of the UK Government in encouraging the adherence to IHL by international actors as well as its own responsibilities to the protection of aid workers delivering UK ODA.

Join the conversation on X using @CommonsIDC

Building on the work on long-term refugees by the previous Committee, the Committee intends to look at the effectiveness of Official Development Assistance spending on a range of activity aimed at supporting displaced people across the globe. A major topic of the inquiry will be the FCDO’s consideration of civilians at the beginning of conflicts, and whether the appropriate support and assistance is offered. Furthermore, the Committee will investigate the effectiveness of ODA spending on support for people displaced by climate disasters. The Conflict, Security and Stability Fund, now replaced by the Integrated Security Fund, was intended to consider these issues, but questions remain about its effectiveness.

Integral to the Committee’s inquiry will be consideration of the drivers that force people to flee and what forms of early intervention work to prevent displacement. Once people become displaced, the Committee wants to examine what happens to them as they leave home and how their return home is facilitated. Across all of this, the Committee will consider whether what the UK Government is currently doing to keep displaced people safe is working.

The Committee is also interested in the value for money of ODA spent on housing displaced people within the UK. Finally, the Committee will evaluate Government progress against the recommendations made by the Committee in its May 2023 Report, “UK aid for refugee host countries”, including on Government support for host countries of long-term refugees, such as Jordan.

Join the conversation on X using @CommonsIDC