1 Introduction
1. It is our practice each year to conduct an
inquiry into the Annual Report published by the Department for
International Development (DFID). This provides an opportunity
for us to take an overview of DFID's work during the year, focusing
on efficiency and effectiveness. It also enables us to assess
major developments affecting DFID's operations across the board
and to examine specific areas of concern. The DFID Annual Report
2008, Development: Making it Happen, was published in May.[1]
The Department's Autumn Performance Report, published in December,
updated some of the information presented in the Annual Report.[2]
2. Our previous work on departmental annual reports
has highlighted that DFID's Public Service Agreements (PSAs),
and therefore the targets against which it measures its performance,
are directly linked to the internationally agreed Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs).[3] A wide
range of donors, and of course developing countries themselves,
contribute to the overall effort towards achievement of the MDGs.
Although we have pointed to serious challenges which are presented
by the need to attribute particular outcomes and impacts to DFID's
specific inputs, we accept that DFID's objectives will continue
to be focused on achievement of the MDGs. DFID's commitment to
promoting the MDGs and its desire to mobilise others to do the
same is clear. It continues to be valid.
3. In order to reflect fully the centrality of
the MDGs to DFID's work, we decided in this year's inquiry to
include an evidence session with Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP,
Secretary of State for International Development, on the outcomes
of the UN High Level Event on the Millennium Development Goals.
This meeting was part of the "Call to Action" on the
MDGs, promoted jointly by the British Prime Minister and the UN
Secretary-General, and took place in New York on 25 September
2008. Its aim was to address the worrying lack of progress on
many of the MDGs and to reinvigorate efforts to achieve the Goals
by the target date of 2015. Chapter 2 assesses the outcomes of
the Event and the new commitments that DFID has made in support
of them. Chapter 3 examines how these commitments are likely
to affect progress on some of the off-track Goals.
4. Chapter 4 analyses DFID's expenditure and
in particular its progress towards the target of allocating 0.7%
of Gross National Income to official development assistance by
2013. In Chapter 5 we examine what DFID's expenditure is achieving
and the challenges faced in evaluating the impact of aid expenditure
and assess how these might be overcome. In Chapters 6 and 7 we
have followed our usual practice of using this inquiry to address
specific areas of concern. This year we have examined DFID's approach
to middle-income countries and to governance.
5. In a new departure, we took oral evidence
from the Chair and two members of the Independent Advisory Committee
on Development Impact, a body established by DFID to improve the
effectiveness of its aid evaluation. We also submitted a number
of questions to DFID for written reply which are published with
the written evidence we received from 12 organisations. We are
grateful to all those who have contributed to this inquiry.
1 Department for International Development Annual Report
2008, Development: Making it Happen, May 2008, HC 492 Back
2
DFID, 2008 Autumn Performance Report: An outline of progress
against the 2008-11 PSA 29 and DFID Departmental Strategic Objectives,
December 2008, Cm 7515 Back
3
See for example First Report from the Committee, Session 2007-08,
DFID Departmental Report 2007, Chapter 2 Back
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