Memorandum submitted by the LAMB Health
Care Foundation
EFFECT OF
REDUCTION IN
DFID STAFFING LEVELS
1. The LAMB Health Care Foundation is a
small UK-based charity which supports an integrated health and
development project in north-west Bangladesh. We currently receive
a grant from DFID's Civil Society Challenge Fund to develop and
expand the work in Bangladesh, with a focus on the rights of women.
2. We would like to comment on the Committee's
question about how DFID's reduced staffing levels will affect
the way it channels funding from a rising budget.
3. We are concerned that DFID's policy of
"doing more with less" will lead to a change in the
way they support NGOs in the direction of giving a smaller number
of larger grants. This is likely to eliminate smaller NGOs as
channels of UK development aid unless special measures are taken.
4. We believe that in order to maintain
the quality of UK aid it is essential that small NGOs are able
to continue to play their part in the delivery of the aid programme
alongside the larger ones. Of course small organisations do not
have the capability of large NGOs to deliver a substantial programme
over a wide area. However they do have a number of advantages,
including the following:
(a) Knowledge and experience of local
conditions. Many small NGOs have built up an intimate knowledge
of the conditions in their area, often over many years, which
is often not replicated by larger organisations.
(b) Responsiveness. They are thus
able to respond to particular local needs in accordance with the
priorities of the local community, which may differ from assessments
made at regional or country level.
(c) Flexibility. Because they are
not governed by policies and priorities set at regional level
or higher, they can adapt the nature of their assistance and their
methods of delivery in response to changes in local circumstances
more quickly than larger organisations.
(d) Low overheads. Because they have
fewer office staff their administrative costs are lower.
5. It seems to us therefore that small organisations
have a continuing important role to play in ensuring that:
— aid is delivered cost-effectively
in accordance with local needs;
— the poor and underprivileged are
empowered to demand their rights; and
— governments and other service-providers
are held accountable at local level.
An increasing emphasis on government-to-government
budgetary aid, by contrast, is unlikely to achieve DFID's objectives
in countries such as Bangladesh because of the known and serious
shortcomings of the national administration.
6. The manpower constraints which DFID faces
may lead them to consider channelling resources through consortia
led by large NGOs. We do not believe that this in itself is likely
to bring the benefits of involvement by small organisations because
the large NGOs would have no incentive to incur the administrative
complications of joining together with smaller ones.
7. We have two suggestions for the Committee's
consideration:
(a) that DFID should make grants to consortia
of NGOs, at least in a proportion of cases, conditional on the
lead NGO demonstrating that small NGOs have been brought into
partnership; and
(b) that DFID should set aside some part
of the aid programme for delivery by small NGOs, if necessary
contracting out the management of this part of the programme.
8. We hope that in these or other ways DFID
will enable small NGOs to continue to make the special contribution
to UK aid objectives of which they are capable.
29 June 2007
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