Select committee: International Development Committee
Conclusion 9
Ninth Report - Investment for development: The UK’s strategy towards Development Finance Institutions
Published 15 Sep 2023
Paragraph 49
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
International Development Committee Investment for development: The UK’s strategy towards Development Finance Institutions All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
A British Investment Partnerships strategy is urgently needed to drive effective co- ordination of actors within the BIPs and to ensure the International Development Strategy’s objective of delivering development in partnership achieves maximum impact. The FCDO must create this strategy, outlining its expectations of all parties involved in those partnerships, by 31 March 2024. The strategy must define inputs, outputs and outcomes measured by entity and progress against these metrics must be publicly reported each year.
From: International Development Committee, Ninth Report - Investment for development: The UK’s strategy towards Development Finance Institutions (HC 884), paragraph 49, 15 September 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 7 December 2023 (deadline 15 November 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government states that it "accepts or partially accepts all recommendations" on British International Investment (BII) and will work with BII to implement relevant reforms, including in negotiations for the 2027 to 2031 strategy.
- On governance, it "partially accepts" Recommendation 1 but "does not agree" that a government official taking a non-voting seat on BII's Board would enhance governance, citing risks such as "blurring lines of responsibility".
- On the British Investment Partnerships strategy (Recommendation 6), it accepts, but notes that consultation "will take time" and says it "does feel able to commit to publishing by summer 2024".
- On targets for BII, it says it is "not appropriate" to introduce multiple additional SMART targets in this strategy period, but the FCDO "will also review its SMART targets for BII as part of the next strategy period from 2027".
- On auditing and annual impact assessments, it believes a full rolling audit "would be disproportionate" but says Ministers "will review in 2024 whether additional spot checks" by external experts "are required".