Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 13 February 2019 to Question 217654, what steps were taken to determine which Grand Bargain commitments are the most critical enablers of transformative change.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID is committed to the Grand Bargain. We are focussing on areas which are central to the UK’s Humanitarian Reform Policy of saving as many lives as possible in humanitarian crises, whilst ensuring value for money in the prioritised allocation of humanitarian resources - where DFID can have the strongest impact on achieving a more effective, efficient and accountable humanitarian system.
Evidence shows that cash can be cheaper to deliver and more effective than sending goods in-kind. Cash promotes the dignity of crisis affected populations by allowing them to prioritise needs themselves, and can contribute to supporting local markets in times of crisis. DFID co-leads the Grand Bargain workstream on cash and has been a world-leader in driving the increased use of cash in humanitarian response.
Accountability to people in crises is critical to improving the quality and impact of humanitarian assistance. Through our Grand Bargain commitments, we are working closely with other donors and aid organisations to ensure people receiving aid are included in the decisions which affect their lives.
The introduction of independent Joint Needs Assessments is vital to ensure a strong evidence-base, which leads to a stronger prioritisation of humanitarian assistance in responses based on the severity and urgency of need. This has the potential to reduce conflicts of interest between agencies fundraising for their own appeals, ensure better value for money and introduce more accountability into the system.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans her Department has to collect data on the transaction costs incurred by her Department’s reporting requirements for UN humanitarian agencies.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK will continue to be a good humanitarian donor who lives up to its Grand Bargain commitments. We provide 30% of our humanitarian funding as core or unearmarked funds. The Grand Bargain workstream on reducing earmarking noted that this flexible funding can reduce grant management transaction costs, amongst other benefits.
We do not plan to undertake an analysis of the transaction costs of our reporting requirements. Collecting data on transaction costs across all of our humanitarian funding would be extremely resource intensive and the results would vary considerably, reflecting the specific context, access constraints and the volume of funding we are providing. However, DFID retains a dialogue with UN partners, where issues of this nature can be raised.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 13 February 2019 to Question 217656, what steps are being taken to streamline and standardise her Department’s reporting requirements for UN agencies.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Where possible, DFID aims to draw on partners’ existing reporting systems and management information to monitor and evaluate our programmes. For example, our UN core funding is linked directly to agencies’ own results frameworks and annual reporting cycles. In addition, where DFID co-funds UN programmes with other donors, where possible, joint reporting arrangements are put in place.
However, large, complex projects in high risk contexts expecting to deliver big results may require additional reporting. As set out in our management response to the ICAI review of the UK’s approach to funding the UN humanitarian system, we will soon launch a new programme delivery learning package for staff to support greater understanding and consistency of reporting requirements across DFID’s country network. We will also look to ensure that lessons generated through the Grand Bargain harmonised reporting pilots process inform our approach to reporting, whilst still ensuring close oversight and accountability for tax payer funds.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the need for reporting requirements on multilateral aid contributions in addition to those delivered in adherence to the OECD DAC guidelines.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
DFID reports UK Official Development Assistance multilateral aid contributions to the OECD DAC (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee) according to the DAC’s guidelines as part of Statistics on International Development, DFID’s annual National Statistics publication.
In addition, multilateral spend data is reported in DFID’s Annual Report (summarised in the main text, and in more detail in Annex B, tables B.1 and B.5).
In line with DFID programme rules, our investment in multilateral organisations is rigorously appraised before approval. Funding is clearly justified in relation to UK priorities, multilateral performance and value for money, and programmes are regularly assessed to ensure they are delivering and remain cost effective. Business cases and Annual Reviews are available on the UK’s Development Tracker website. The contribution of multilaterals to key development objectives is included on DFID’s Results Pages on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of her Department’s Official Development Assistance is delivered through local and national partners.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) data is collected and reported according to a standard international classification produced by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
According to this classification eleven percent of DFID’s bilateral ODA was channelled through UK or other donor country-based NGOs in 2017, the latest published year of ODA statistics.
Data that disaggregates other delivery partners - such as private sector institutions and research institutions - into local and national are not produced in the ODA statistics.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of harmonising reporting requirements across donors.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
DFID uses and supports the OECD Development Assistance Committee’s (DAC) system for Official Development Assistance (ODA) statistics and the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), which both facilitate harmonised reporting from donors.
The OECD DAC system provides authoritative ODA spend statistics from donor countries according to the internationally agreed definition of ODA, which enables donor effort to be reported in a standardised and comparable format. As a DAC member, the UK is committed to transparent reporting of ODA in a way that allows international comparisons.
IATI is an initiative to improve the transparency of development and humanitarian resources, including results, based on a standard reporting format. More than 900 organisations and donors are publishing their data to the IATI standard. DFID is encouraging all its partners to join IATI to enhance transparency to both taxpayers and beneficiaries and to improve harmonisation and efficiency.