Highlights of the Committee's
work in 2007-08
2) During the 2007-2008 Session, the Committee
held 49 meetings, of which 33 were public oral evidence sessions.
We published 12 Reports which included a number of specific recommendations
to Government on a variety of DFID policy areas.[4]
3) DFID's programmes are targeted towards achievement
of the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
whose overriding aim is to halve the number of people living in
poverty by 2015. All our inquiries—to a greater or lesser
degree—focus on assessing the extent to which DFID's policies
and activities are contributing towards meeting the MDGs. Our
report this session on Maternal Health drew attention to
one of the MDGs which is most off-track. In addition, this year
we used our annual scrutiny of DFID's departmental report to take
evidence from the Secretary of State on the outcomes of the UN
High Level Event on the Millennium Development Goals held in New
York in September. This event was part of the "Call to Action",
launched by the British Prime Minister and the UN Secretary-General
to give new impetus to the MDGs.
4) It has been our practice in this Parliament
to examine DFID's work to tackle HIV/AIDS each year. Halting and
reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS is another of the MDGs. In July,
we announced an inquiry into DFID's new HIV/AIDS Strategy which
examined the extent to which DFID's new approach, set out in the
Strategy, was likely to achieve the aim of universal access to
prevention, treatment, care and support for HIV/AIDS by 2010.
We published our report in time for World AIDS Day on 1 December
2008.
5) It is also our practice to examine DFID's
programmes in specific countries to assess the extent to which
these programmes have met DFID's stated aims. During this Session
we have conducted inquiries into DFID's programmes in Afghanistan
and China. We followed-up our 2007 report on the Occupied Palestinian
Territories (OPTs) to take account of the worsening humanitarian
situation there. We also held two one-off oral evidence sessions:
on DFID's assistance to Burma (on which we first reported in 2007)
following Cyclone Nargis; and on Iraq.
6) The UK now channels about 40% of its aid budget
through multilateral organisations. We therefore decided it was
timely to assess the extent to which funding delivered in this
way achieved outcomes which matched DFID's objectives. Our reports
on DFID's relationships with the African Development Bank, the
World Bank and the World Food Programme, which examined these
issues, are described below.
Committee membership
7) We have had a number of changes to the membership
of the Committee this Session.[5]
Whilst this is generally the case, we are becoming concerned about
how long it takes for members to be discharged and replaced. We
appreciate that there are many factors to be taken into account
in appointing Members to committees, but we believe that it would
greatly assist select committees in carrying out their duties
if membership changes were dealt with more speedily.
8) Our only female member was appointed to a
Government post in September; at the end of the Session we were
still awaiting her replacement. We were already sensitive about
having only one woman on the Committee, particularly during visits
to developing countries where female political representation
is often much closer to parity than in the UK. The Department
for International Development rightly exhorts the countries it
works in to promote gender equality. We would regard it as extremely
regrettable if the UK Parliament was shown to be unable to meet
the standards it advocates by failing to find at least one female
Member to join the IDC.
1 The parliamentary Session 2007-2008 began with the
State Opening of Parliament on 6 November 2007 and ended on 27
November 2008. Back
2
See Annex A Back
3
DFID sponsors one non-departmental body, the Advisory Commonwealth
Scholarship Commission in the UK; and wholly owns CDC Group plc,
the main arm for the Department's interventions in private sector
development. Back
4
See Annex C: Sessional Return. The Sessional Return includes information
and statistics about the membership, work, and staff of select
committees. Back
5
See Annex C for details Back
