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Sub-Saharan Africa

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether her Department employs independent auditors to audit the effectiveness of her aid spending in countries in sub-Saharan Africa; and if she will list the countries. [47329]

Hilary Benn: My Department employs an Internal Audit function which is organisationally independent from the rest of DFID and is staffed by professionally qualified internal auditors. Internal Audit Department's remit includes reviews of DFID's operations and funding in sub-Saharan Africa. Reviews of effectiveness of aid funding are also carried out by DFID's Evaluation Department and by the National Audit Office.

The following is a list of sub-Saharan Africa countries in which development funds were used in 2000–01: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

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Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether she employs

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independent organisations to measure the level of corruption in Government to Government aid programmes granted to countries in sub-Saharan Africa. [47330]

Hilary Benn: No. The Department has strong programme management systems, supported by Internal Audit and National Audit Office scrutiny, to verify that funds are used for the purposes intended and to prevent or detect misuse or corruption in our programmes.

We fund independent organisations to conduct national corruption perception surveys in African countries which are used to inform governments' anti-corruption strategies.

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development in which country in sub-Saharan Africa she estimates her Department's aid policy to have been (a) most and (b) least effective; and for what reasons. [47334]

Hilary Benn: DFID's aim is the elimination of poverty. The UN Millennium Development Goals are the main yardsticks against which we measure progress towards this aim. At country level progress towards development goals is principally the responsibility of African governments, in partnership with the donor community. The international community is working with developing countries, including in sub-Saharan Africa, to promote country-led and participatory Poverty Reduction Strategy processes. These processes are intended to develop national policy strategies, agree priorities, and help to develop an institutional framework in which governments can be held to account by their own citizens. The role of donors is to provide financial and technical support to enhance governments' capacity to develop and implement these strategies.

Aid effectiveness has improved in recent years, partly as a result of increasing international agreement on how aid can be most effective in reducing poverty and building capacity in the poorest countries. The evidence shows that aid is effective particularly in those countries with good policy environments and where there are large numbers of poor people, and in such situations has been effective in promoting economic development and poverty reduction. In Uganda aid has supported growth (averaging around 7 per cent. over the past decade) with extreme poverty reduced by over 20 per cent. since 1992, to 35 per cent. of the population. In Tanzania, where GDP growth has more than doubled between 1988 and 2001, HIPC benefits, World Bank and donor aid have helped finance primary education, with net enrolment in primary schools increased from 57 per cent. in 1999 to 65 per cent. in 2001.

DFID's performance against its global objectives, set out in the DFID Public Service Agreement and Service Delivery Agreement, is published in the Departmental Report. DFID assesses its work in each country through an established system of annual performance reviews. However, given our broad approach to development, and the diverse nature of our partnerships, there are considerable technical difficulties in attempting to

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quantify the impact of particular levels and types of assistance provided by a particular donor on the overall progress towards development in a particular country.

DFID will publish a Development Effectiveness Report this summer. It will discuss how DFID's strategic, long-term poverty-focused approach can be evaluated, recognising the problems of attributing impact to particular interventions in a context of a broad partnership which is working towards our shared goals of the Millennium Development Goals.

jenny

Egypt, Poland and China

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will list her Department's total spending in (a) Egypt, (b) Poland and (c) China in each of the last five years and her forecast total spending in each for the next three years.[47335]

Hilary Benn: The information requested is set out in the tables below:

DfID Programme by country

	£ thousands
	China	Egypt	Poland
1996–97	30,956	6,299	12,718
1997–98	38,616	7,246	13,337
1998–99	39,189	4,947	7,916
1999–2000	26,260	3,546	4,442
2000–01	29,746	2,661	3,814

	£ millions
	China	Egypt	Poland
2001–021	23	2.5	2.5
2002–031	38	4	0.7
2003–041	38	3.5	0

1 Estimated figures.

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HIV/AIDS

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will list her Department's total spending on HIV/AIDS for each of the last five years and her forecast total spending on HIV/AIDS in each of the next three years. [47336]

Hilary Benn: There is often no clear distinction between assisting with work on HIV/AIDS and other sexual and reproductive health issues. However, the following is my Department's total bilateral expenditure on reproductive health activities, including HIV/AIDS, from financial years 1997–98—2001–02:

1997–98 to £38.4 million

1998–99 to £45.0 million

1999–00 to £75.7 million

2000–01 to £124.9 million

2001–02 to £206.6 million.

We have also in this period provided funding to support the HIV/AIDS programmes of a number of multilateral organisations, including the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United

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Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), the European Community (EC) and the World Bank. However, with the exception of UNAIDS it is not possible to determine the portion of our contributions used for HIV/AIDS work as opposed to the other work of these agencies.

We would expect that over the next three years our HIV/AIDS expenditure will increase above the present level.

Rebo

Overseas Aid Budget

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much of her Department's overseas aid budget was provided to charities and other NGOs for each of the last five years (a) as a percentage of her Department's overseas aid budget and (b) in real terms. [47332]

Hilary Benn: We do not compile statistics for aid to charities and other NGOs as such. The following table shows estimated figures for the last five financial years, calculated using the nearest equivalents within the bilateral programme. These figures do not include support to in-country civil society organisations or UK groups receiving funds channelled through multilateral organisations.

£ Million	Total	Constant Prices 2000–01	Proportion of total DfID expenditure
1996–97	58	64	3%
1997–98	63	67	3%
1998–99	52	54	2%
1999–2000	63	64	2%
2000–01	101	101	4%

Source: Statistics on International Development 1996–97 to 2000–01

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much of her Department's overseas aid budget is provided in the form of Government to Government aid grants for each of the last five years (a) as a percentage of her Department's overseas aid budget and (b) in real terms. [47331]

Hilary Benn: We do not compile statistics for government to government aid grants as such. The following table shows estimated figures for the last five financial years, calculated using the nearest equivalents within the bilateral programme. These figures do not include support given through mulilateral organisations.

£ Million	Total	Constant Prices 2000–01	Proportion of total DfID expenditure
1996–97	396	438	18%
1997–98	354	380	17%
1998–99	409	427	17%
1999–2000	453	462	18%
2000–01	558	558	20%

Source: Statistics on International Development 1996–97 to 2000–01

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