1 Introduction
1. The Department for International Development
(DFID) published the draft International Development (Official
Development Assistance Target) Bill on 15 January 2010. The proposed
legislation was first announced by the Prime Minister at the Labour
Party Conference in 2009.[1]
Subsequently the Queen's Speech stated that "draft legislation
will be published to make binding my Government's commitment to
spend nought point seven per cent of national income on international
development from 2013."[2]
If enacted, it would enshrine in law the commitment to provide
0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) as Official Development Assistance
(ODA) from 2013 and in each subsequent year. The UK made the commitment
to meet this target in 2004 and says that it is currently on-track
to do so.[3]
2. We agreed to undertake the pre-legislative
scrutiny of the draft Bill in order to inform the House. Because
of the proximity of the General Election the Bill will not become
law in the current Parliament. The Government has said that, if
re-elected, it would seek to pass the Bill before the summer recess
and in time for the UN Millennium Development Goal summit in September
2010. This is intended to encourage a "final push" towards
the achievement of the goals by 2015.[4]
3. We invited written evidence on the following
areas:
- The overall aims and scope
of the draft Bill;
- Whether legislation was necessary to achieve
the 0.7 % target in 2013 and beyond;
- Whether the proposed accountability measures
contained in the draft Bill were sufficient;
- The potential impact of the draft Bill on the
actions of other donor countries in respect of meeting their ODA
commitments;
- Whether enshrining the ODA target in legislation
was likely to affect the predictability of aid levels for developing
countries;
- Whether the legislation was likely to affect
poverty reduction objectives for ODA expenditure as set out in
the International Development Act 2002;
- The likely impact on the contribution to ODA
from other government departments (ie non-Department for International
Development ODA expenditure).
4. We received written evidence from 19 individuals
and organisations and held two oral evidence sessions. In the
first session we took evidence from Professor Lawrence Haddad,
Director, Institute of Development Studies; Alison Evans, Director,
and Simon Maxwell, Senior Research Associate, Overseas Development
Institute; Ms Karen Jorgensen, Head of the Review and Evaluation
Division, Development Cooperation Directorate, Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); Save the Children;
Oxfam; and the UK Aid Network (UKAN). In the second session we
took evidence from Gareth Thomas MP, Minister of State, DFID and
Government officials.
Legislative context of the draft
Bill
5. The Department for International Development
does not generate much legislation. There are currently two international
development Acts. The 2002 International Development Act sets
out the Secretary of State's powers to provide development assistance
to countries, territories and organisations if he is convinced
that such expenditure will contribute to a reduction in poverty.
The draft Bill does not propose any alterations to the 2002 International
Development Act.
6. Subsequently the 2006 International Development
(Reporting and Transparency) Act strengthened parliamentary scrutiny
of the provision of development assistance by requiring the Government
to report annually on the amount of aid provided by the UK. Under
Section 3 of the Act the Secretary of State is required to make
an assessment of the year in which he expects that the 0.7% target
will be met. The draft Bill proposes to repeal this Section of
the 2006 Act and replace it with the duty to meet the target from
2013 onwards.[5]
1 "Gordon Brown's speech to Labour Party conference",
www.labour.org.uk Back
2
HC Deb, 18 November 2009, col 4 Back
3
OECD figures show that UK ODA will be 0.56% in 2010. OECD press
release, "Donors mixed aid performance for 2010 sparks concern",
17 February 2010 Back
4
Qs 68, 80 [Gareth Thomas]. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
are eight specific goals to be met by 2015 that aim to combat
extreme poverty across the world. These goals were agreed at the
UN Millennium Summit in New York in 2000 Back
5
Draft International Development (Official Development Assistance
Target) Bill, Explanatory notes; Clause 4 Back
| 
