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2 Jul 2003 : Column 299W—continued
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Civil Servants
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development how many new entrants to the Civil Service were employed in the Department in each of the last five years; and how many in each year were aged 50 or over. [119824]
Hilary Benn: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer given by the Minister for the Cabinet Office on 24 June 2003, Official Report, column 661W.
Council of Ministers
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development on how many occasions since May 1997 the Department's vote in the Council of Ministers against a legislative proposal (a) was and (b) was not sufficient to achieve with other member states a blocking minority. [117218]
Hilary Benn: On no occasion since January 1999 has the Department voted against a legislative proposal in the Council of Ministers.
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Information for 1997 and 1998 could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development on how many occasions since May 1997 the Department abstained in the Council of Ministers on a legislative proposal which was passed by qualified majority voting. [117232]
Hilary Benn: On no occasion since January 1999 has the Department for International Development abstained in the Council of Members on a legislative proposal which was passed by qualified majority vote.
Information for 1997 and 1998 could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development on how many occasions since May 1997 the Department has been outvoted by qualified majority voting in the Council of Ministers; and if he will list the legislation by year. [117250]
Hilary Benn: On no occasion since January 1999 has the Department for International Development been outvoted by qualified majority voting in the Council of Ministers.
Information for 1997 and 1998 could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development on how many occasions since May 1997 the Department indicated dissent from a proposal in the Council of Ministers but did not register a vote or abstention. [117265]
Hilary Benn: On no occasion since January 1999 has the Department for International Development indicated dissent from a proposal in the Council of Ministers and not registered a vote or abstention.
Information for 1997 and 1998 could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Performance Targets
Dr. Tonge: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development in what percentage of (a) high risk, (b) medium risk and (c) low risk projects, the value for money indicator found the Department to have been successful; and if he will make a statement. [122710]
Hilary Benn: Our projects and programmes are monitored on a regular basis and we assess the likelihood of their achieving the objectives set for them. The figures for the last two financial years are:
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| Financial year | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 2001–02 | |
| High risk projects judged likely to be successful | -24 |
| Medium risk projects judged likely to be successful | -56 |
| Low risk projects judged likely to be successful | -81 |
| 2002–03 | |
| High risk projects judged likely to be successful | -33 |
| Medium risk projects judged likely to be successful | -52 |
| Low risk projects judged likely to be successful | -84 |
For the purposes of this exercise, we judge projects receiving a score of 1 or 2 to be successful (ie those completely or largely achieving their objectives). Projects receiving a lower score may have partly achieved their objectives and so achieved a measure of success. One of the main aims in the monitoring and review process is to identify areas where projects are not achieving all of their objectives and take corrective action.
The monitoring and review process is carried out for projects under implementation but we also assess projects on completion where the latest figures show that 77 per cent. were judged likely to achieve their overall purpose.
We have a target in our 2003–06 Public Service Agreement to improve the performance of our projects in each risk category.
Dr. Tonge: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development what the (a) objectives, (b) targets and (c) main budgetary compartments are for the (i) Africa Performance Fund and (ii) Asia Performance Fund; and if he will make a statement. [122736]
Hilary Benn: Divisional performance funds were introduced from 2000–01 as reserves to be allocated in-year by directors, largely to reward good performance but also to respond to unforeseen demands and opportunities, including urgent humanitarian needs. They provide flexibility to allocate additional funds to those countries and institutions where progress on reform enables effective use of funds in pursuit of poverty reduction.
The table shows the total amounts budgeted:
| Africa | Asia | |
|---|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 57 | 4.5 |
| 2001–02 | 10 | 1 |
| 2002–03 | 14 | 18 |
| 2003–04 | 35 | 0 |
| 2004–05(21) | 151 | 65 |
| 2005–06(21) | 289 | 130 |
(21) Includes amounts provisionally earmarked from Director General Performance Fund from 2004–05.
In Africa in 2000–01 there were two payments, one of £29 million to assist copper industry restructuring in Zambia, and another of £28 million as programme aid to support economic reform in Kenya. In 2001–02, a smaller sum was available, of which £7 million was spent on humanitarian assistance: £5 million in the DRC (through the International Red Cross) and £2 million on humanitarian projects in the Sudan. A further £0.25 million was spent on AFRICAP, an African
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micro-finance investment fund. In 2002–03, £10 million was spent on programme aid to Ethiopia as our bilateral relationship strengthened, £3.2 million on humanitarian work (in Angola, Sudan and the Great Lakes region), and a further £0.8 million contribution to AFRICAP. Some £35 million is available in 2003–04, much of which will be needed for humanitarian work.
Asia's performance fund allocations were smaller than Africa's at £4.5 million in 2000–01, £1 million in 2001–02 and £18 million in 2002–03. This fund was used for various purposes including responding to humanitarian needs and a transfer to the Afghanistan programme. Asia does not have a performance fund allocation for 2003–04.
From 2004–05 onwards, resources for performance funds rise significantly. These funds will be allocated in part before the year commences, although significant amounts will remain to be allocated in-year. They will be targeted at those countries that are currently performing less well or that are in or emerging from conflict. We are already planning high and stable levels of spending in countries with a clear commitment to, and capacity to deliver, poverty reduction.
Reproductive Health
Chris McCafferty: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development when the Secretary of State plans to publish her Department's policy paper on Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals, and if she will make a statement. [122920]
Hilary Benn: We are planning to produce a public policy statement on reproductive health, which will set out our position on reproductive health and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), before the end of the year. We intend to consult with non-governmental organisations, international institutions, parliamentarians and other government departments, among others, on this paper.
Reproductive health continues to be a priority for DFID and we remain firmly committed to the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development target of achieving access to reproductive health for all by 2015. DFID believes that population and reproductive health are fundamental to efforts to tackle poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Statistics
Dr. Tonge: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development what percentage of statistics used by the Department preceding overseas aid projects were in time for their effective use in (a) project design and (b) project evaluation, for the years 2000 to 2003. [122711]
Hilary Benn: DFID's Country Plans set out our overall strategy for programme and project interventions in a country. These plans focus on how we can support our partner countries poverty reduction plans, drawing on the available statistics.
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Accurate data are vital to measure progress in reducing poverty, including progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. In most poor countries, collecting reliable data for indicators such as primary school enrolment or births and deaths is a major challenge. Often data are simply not available, or they may be of a variable quality due to information gaps as a result of inefficient data collection practices. There may also be a long delay in the production of country data which can hamper developing countries' government's ability to plan and implement effective policies. In countries affected by conflict, systems for collecting data may have ceased to function at all.
DFID has been providing technical and financial support to a number of multilateral statistical initiatives, such as the Partnership In Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) initiative, to help build the capacity in developing countries to collect and use statistical data. Within DFID's country assistance planning system, we support our partner countries' own poverty reduction strategies to help achieve sustainable poverty reduction. DFID's Country Assistance Plans contain a statistical annex which is revised every year. We are committed to using locally available country data whenever possible, supplemented by data from international sources such as the World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to monitor progress against the country plans. This enables DFID to strengthen country statistical systems as well as improving data for measuring progress against our poverty reduction targets.
Dr. Tonge: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development how much the Department has spent on the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century; what the Department's targets were for the partnership in the years (a) 2000–01, (b) 2001–02 and (c) 2002–03; and how far these have been met. [122712]
Hilary Benn: The total spent on supporting the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) is £1.57 million.
The UK is one of several donors providing support, partly by means of contributing to its overall budget. As a consequence, DFID did not set specific targets for what our support is expected to achieve in each separate year.
The following sets out the PARIS21 targets over the three years as a whole, together with an indication how far they have been met. These are largely based on the results of a very positive recent evaluation, which we expect to be published shortly on the PARIS21 websiteatwww.paris21.org.
- Improved co-ordination, motivation and resources for statistical capacity building.
Demand for improved information systems, and readiness to support them, has increased significantly in multilateral institutions and in many governments.
To enable the Secretariat to perform its support role effectively (e.g. facilitation of national, regional and global activities and facilitation of the task team activities) The UK was a major contributor to the costs of the Secretariat, whose performance has been rated highly.
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Dissemination of best practice and maintenance of web-site—There has been some improved information exchange between donors at country level, and between UN agencies. PARIS21 is judged to have helped spread awareness among low-income countries' governments.
Facilitation of development of governance indicators and indicators of means of implementation—Progress was always known to be difficult to achieve in this area. However, a task team has now been established to manage a large project to take this work forward.
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