Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to a smaller budget for Official Development Assistance, what steps he is taking to promote a locally-led approach to programming in UK aid spending.

The FCDO is already committed to championing locally led development and the upcoming International Development Strategy will be an opportunity to refresh our approach across Government.

Demands to recognise, respect and strengthen, the role of local people and organisations represent a challenge for the whole aid sector that we must face together. Part of our approach is ensuring that we understand when and how our funding reaches local and national actors and promote good practice. For example, our new guidelines for our Rapid Response Facility, improve the tracking of FCDO funds going to local organisations, and ensure that their indirect costs are covered by our funding. In addition, our tender evaluation criteria require lead bidders to demonstrate use of local expertise and to consider the additional Social Value that their teams will deliver, with bids scored accordingly. We are also exploring other models for empowering local people to meet their own priorities. For example, our new 10-year, £60 million co-funded partnership with Comic Relief, will feature local grant making panels and test new ways of building the capacity and sustainability of locally led civil society organisations in Ghana, Zambia and Malawi to help them pursue their own strategic objectives. Another programme is supporting Organisations of Persons with Disabilities in the developing countries to ensure that the priorities of people with disabilities are being addressed.