Departmental Annual Report and Accounts

Monday 25th June 2012 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

I have today published and laid before Parliament, the Department for International Development’s annual report and accounts for the year 2011-12.

The report covers DFID’s activities during 2011-12 in line with the International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Act 2006 and includes a full set of accounts for 2011-12. The report has been placed in the Libraries of the House of Commons and House of Lords for the reference of Members and copies will be made available in the Vote Office. It is also available online on DFID’s website (www.dfid.gov.uk).

The annual report contains results which are both clear and quantifiable. This has been possible because for the first time, this Government have established systems which allow us to measure and track, in detail, the results which UK aid is achieving.

Over the last two years aid from Britain has quite simply transformed the lives of millions in the world’s poorest countries. This has included:

vaccinating over 12 million children against preventable diseases;

improving the land and property rights of 1.1 million people;

supporting 5.3 million children (2.5 million of them girls) to go to primary school;

distributing 12.2 million bednets to protect people against malaria;

supporting 26 African countries to agree an Africa free trade area;

enabling 11.9 million people to work their way out of poverty by providing access to financial services;

preventing 2.7 million children and pregnant women from going hungry;

reaching 6 million people with emergency food assistance;

supporting freer and fairer elections in five countries;

improving hygiene conditions for 7.4 million people.

These results show what British aid can achieve. It is time that aid funded by the British people is easily and clearly identified as coming from the UK.

For that reason, I am today launching a new UK aid logo which we intend, in future, to apply to things like emergency grain packets, buildings and pumps. The logo features the Union flag and will be instantly recognisable across the world. The logo has been designed in-house at no additional cost to the taxpayer and will be introduced gradually as existing stocks run down.

Both the annual report and our new logo are testament to the extraordinary results which British aid is achieving. They are results of which this House and this country can be proud.