DfID future at risk unless it acquires greater Whitehall influence, say UK MPs
|
Version 0 of 1. Britain’s Department for International Development (DfID) must become more integrated into the overall government machinery, and seek greater influence, particularly on security issues, if it is to remain relevant and protect its status as a standalone ministry, a parliamentary committee said on Monday. The international development committee (IDC), chaired by Sir Malcolm Bruce, said more cross-government coordination on development was essential, stating DfID had a “patchy” record. “There is more to do on security where we are concerned that DfID lacks influence; as a result, too little weight is given to conflict prevention,” the report said. Development challenges, such as security in fragile states, climate change and threats from diseases such as Ebola required a cross-government approach, especially as the international community worked to draft the sustainable development targets that will replace the millennium development goals when they expire this year. “The new approach raises questions about issues such as organisational structures, cross-government working, competences, and reporting and accountability. We believe DfID’s long-term future as a standalone ministry will be at risk unless stronger mechanisms to support cross-government working on development are put in place,” the report said. “We need to ensure that policies across government are joined up and we want DfID to have more influence both in Whitehall and in developing countries,” Bruce saidt. The report recommended that the UK maintain a “free-standing and cabinet-level” DfID to ensure that development priorities lie at the heart of government. It also recommended that cross-government working be improved. “The security sector is a case in point,” it said. “The National Security Council (NSC) should take a broader view of threats to UK security and ensure that development and conflict prevention be given the priority they deserve.” The NSC is the main forum for discussing government objectives for national security and is meant to ensure that ministers consider national security issues in a strategic way. The IDC noted that Britain’s national security adviser, Sir Kim Darroch, declined to appear before it, “citing concerns about sharing internal policy advice – prepared for the prime minister – in public”. It said improved coordination on security was crucial “given long-held concerns that the development agenda perhaps is downplayed to military priorities”. The case for DfID’s continued existence as a standalone department “will be made stronger if cross-government structures ensure collaboration with other departments is as efficient and coherent as possible”, the report continued. DfID was part of the Foreign and Commonweath Office until 1997, when the Labour government established it as a department in its own right. The IDC published the results of the first phase of its inquiry into the future of UK development cooperation (pdf) in February last year, noting that grants from the UK and other donors to developing countries, while still essential, would be of decreasing importance compared with other sources of finance. In this second phase report, the IDC said aid remained vital but that new forms of cooperation were also needed in a rapidly evolving global context, where there were fewer low-income countries but where many of the poorest states were also fragile, requiring complex and multiple interventions. “Furthermore, rich and poor countries together must face up to big global challenges like climate change or disease epidemics that have the potential to impact on us all – and these require not just money but new forms of cooperation,” Bruce said. “That is why development in the future will not just be about aid. When the government puts its mind to it, the results are impressive. The UK often leads in shaping the global agenda, as it has done, for example, on women and girls. But the evidence we received shows the record is patchy. We call on the government to up its game and make policy coherence a central priority,” he added. The report noted that Britain should not be afraid of showing its commitment to middle-income countries. “We recommend that the UK be confident about its decision to continue its ‘beyond aid’ engagement in middle-income countries. The UK may no longer have a traditional aid relationship with these countries, but it is spending official development assistance (ODA) in Brazil, India and China – and is rather diffident about admitting this,” the report said. “We believe the government should stand up for this course of action, rather than giving its critics opportunities by obfuscating about its – perfectly legitimate – activities in these countries.” The committee also praised the government’s commitment in reaching a 0.7% target of aid as a share of national income. In testimony to the IDC last November, development secretary Justine Greening said DfID had an increasingly integrated role at the heart of government strategy, noting her department’s presence in the NSC. Referring to countries in transition, she said DfID would work “to drive the domestic resource mobilisation agenda, which is going to be a big part of the ‘beyond aid’ policy approach that we’ve got because everyone recognises that ODA’s going to become a smaller part of the resourcing that countries are bringing to bear on development”. A DfID spokeswoman said: “The committee is absolutely right to say that aid agencies and NGOs must work towards a sustainable end to aid dependency. “Boosting growth and creating jobs, supporting trade, improving tax revenues and stopping conflict, disease or corruption are vital if a country is to pull itself out of poverty for good. “That is why we have directed more resource to end aid dependency through growth and jobs, placed the wellbeing of girls and women at the heart of our work and put in place new relationships with emerging powers. “We are working hard to make sure that this new approach is reflected in the next set of UN development goals.” The IDC report also said DfID must improve reporting and accountability. The department came under fire this week after parliament’s spending watchdog said hundreds of millions of pounds of public funds had been handed over without proper scrutiny to an aid agency accused of funding international criminals. |