HC 750 - Department for International Development's Performance in 2013-2014: The Departmental Annual Report 2013-14

Committee welcomes DFID's work in achieving the UN target of spending 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) on Official Development Assistance. It is proud that the UK has become the first G7 country to meet the target. Though it notes that managing the huge increase (33%) in DFID spending from 2012-13 to 2013-14 has been a challenge. The Committee was concerned by DFID's extensive use of multilateral organisations to achieve this growth, as well as increasing its spending on centrally managed programmes and humanitarian assistance. The Committee is concerned that this potential overuse of multilaterals comes at the expense of DFID's bilateral programme, and potentially squeezes out other opportunities. The Committee also recommends a ceiling on humanitarian spending. The Committee is concerned that spending by DFID's priority country teams as a proportion of DFID's spending has gone down, particularly the proportion going to Africa, and to DFID's priority countries. The Committee recommends that DFID increase the share of expenditure going to bilateral programmes, and to sub-Saharan Africa in particular. The Committee is concerned that DFID does not know how long staff stay in different posts in country offices, and has standard postings that are less than other donors. DFID has increased the number of staff it employs, but the amount spent per member of staff has increased significantly. To use staff time efficiently DFID has a focus on large programmes, which are outsourced to multilaterals and large contractors to manage. The Committee calls for smaller, expert suppliers to be used more. The UK's leadership in providing Official Development Assistance brings many benefits to the UK, as well as around the world. The UK provided £11.46 billion in ODA in 2013, £6.75 billion bilateral and £4.71 multilateral ODA.