Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the funding entitled UK Aid Direct Fund: working with small and medium charities.

The International Development Strategy sets out the FCDO's commitment to working in partnership with a diverse range of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). UK Aid Direct is the FCDO's main centrally-managed funding mechanism for small and medium sized CSOs based in the UK and overseas, working to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

By July 2022, the programme had reached more than 9.7 million vulnerable and marginalised beneficiaries across 39 countries, through 196 grants. UK Aid Direct has continued to perform well against its output indicators and has met or exceeded expectations at every Annual Review.