Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that UK (a) bilateral and (b) multilateral aid is disbursed (i) directly to local organisations in developing countries and (ii) to UK firms that score very highly in respect of their diversity.
The FCDO is committed to working in partnership with a diverse range of civil society organisations and recognises the unique role of in-country local organisations. A key aim of our funding for civil society is to support the capacity of local civil society organisations in developing countries so they can become strong, self-reliant and powerful development actors.
All FCDO's contracts are tendered in accordance with the Public Contract Regulations, which ensures open, transparent and fair competition between bidders. This means our contracts are competitively tendered following a set of standard processes. The Public Contracts Regulations provide a legal framework of procurement rules which ensure application of best practice including transparency, non-discrimination, equal treatment and proportionality and reasonableness.