Summary
The Department for International Development's (DFID) objectives continue to focus on achievement of the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), with the overarching aim of poverty reduction. This focus remains valid. However, on current trends most of the MDGs will not be met by the 2015 deadline.
The prospects for achieving MDG 2 on universal primary education, by 2015, concern the Committee. To meet the target of all children completing primary education by 2015, universal access to schooling will need to be in place by 2010. The necessary schools will therefore have to be built and teachers trained in less than two years.
The global economic downturn may exacerbate the risk of failure if development assistance levels are not maintained and donor commitments on aid are allowed to lapse. In straitened economic circumstances it is vital that every pound spent achieves the maximum impact, not least so that public support for aid expenditure can be maintained.
The Committee is not convinced that DFID's evaluation processes allow it to make an accurate assessment of what its funding is achieving. The Independent Advisory Committee on Development Impact (IACDI) has begun to improve evaluation within DFID. This process must continue with the full engagement of the Department.
DFID's ability to deliver its objectives is beginning to be constrained, despite its rising budget, by the Government-wide requirement to reduce its administrative budget and therefore the number of staff it employs.
The Government should urgently reassess whether DFID has sufficient staff in place effectively to deliver the objectives which it has assigned to the Department under its Public Service Agreements (PSAs).
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