The Department for International Development (DfID) could find its ringfenced, multi-billion-pound budget under threat from other departments unless it can demonstrate a “very clear strategic vision” for helping the world’s poorest people and delivering value for money, the new head of the independent aid watchdog has warned.
Dr Alison Evans, the new chief commissioner of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (Icai), said the move to enshrine in law the UK’s commitment to spending 0.7% of its gross national income on aid had put DfID under unprecedented public and political scrutiny. Last year, the department spent £11.4bn – or about £180 per person – on aid.
The department’s protected budget at a time of swingeing cuts across Whitehall has also prompted the defence secretary, Michael Fallon, to suggest that some aid spending could be counted as part of the defence budget, and to argue that DfID should spend more on tackling mass migration from Africa so that the UK does not have to “fish” refugees out of the Mediterranean.
Evans said that while interdepartmental turf wars and public scepticism over the aid spending were nothing new, DfID nonetheless had to justify its spending more robustly than before.
“If you’ve got a department that is essentially sitting on a ringfenced budget of that nature that’s been written into law, they absolutely have to take the leadership on this,” she said.
“There are always going to be questions raised on how you can defend that - and they need to be settled through evidence that this works and that this is making the kind of contribution that the UK public ultimately wants the UK to deliver in the world.”
Adding that political battles behind closed doors were inevitable, Evans called on Justine Greening – who was reappointed secretary of state for international development after May’s election – to show both authority and clear evidence of DfID’s successes.
“Without a very clear strategic vision for how official development assistance needs to be delivered in the UK, there’s going to be potential possibly for some loss of turf,” she said. “The case needs to be stated clearly and on the front foot … I hope with continuity of secretary of state that what we’ll now see is a step up into that space.”
Evans, a former director of the Overseas Development Institute, who has also worked at the World Bank, was announced as the Icai chief commissioner in December.
She said that under her leadership, the commission would be keeping a close eye on DfID claims in key areas such as humanitarian response, improving the lives of women and girls and the increasing involvement of the private sector in development.
“We’ll be trying to balance our work programme through some pretty close looks at the evidence on impact and some things that are really much more around the fitness-for-purpose of the organisation: is it really an effective purveyor of aid in this 21st century context?” said Evans.
In blunter terms, she added, Icai had a vital role to play “in keeping their feet to the fire about, ‘you claim it works; let’s test it’”.
The commission’s reports over the past year and a half have accused DfID of seeing the private sector as “a developmental panacea”, of failing to address petty but widespread corruption in poorer countries and of lacking a clear strategy for engaging with multilateral agencies such as the World Bank, the EU and the UN.
Evans said her aims as chief commissioner are to provide the international development committee with the evidence it needs to hold DfID to account in parliament and to see Icai’s work recognised beyond the development community.
“We’re not necessarily going to be loved by everyone but as long as we are really recognised for adding value, being credible and being impartial – and touching on the issues that the UK is really wrestling with now about its aid programme – I’ll be happy with that,” she said.
“And if we can have some vigorous debate around it, even better. But we’re not a thinktank – we’re a scrutiny body.”
