Source · Select Committees · International Development Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 82
The UK Government must trust and fund what works.
Conclusion
The UK Government must trust and fund what works. Policy and spend must be dedicated to interventions that deliver, at scale, to and with those most in need. Investing in long-term partnerships provides the key to long-term change. Should ODA levels stagnate, the requirement to ensure that assistance is well-spent becomes more critical than ever. The UK Government must be evidence-led in terms of spend, focusing on independently and internally assessed ‘best buys’, such as extreme poverty graduation, that deliver the most significant and sustainable returns on investment. On this basis, extreme poverty should represent more, not less, of official ODA spend.
Government Response Summary
The Government is committed to spending 0.7% of GNI on ODA as soon as the fiscal situation allows and is strengthening the governance of cross-government ODA.
Paragraph Reference:
82
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government is committed to spending 0.7% of GNI on ODA as soon as the fiscal situation allows. This commitment was re-emphasised at the Autumn Statement 2022. We are strengthening the governance of cross-government ODA, including a cross-government Ministerial body for ODA oversight co-chaired by the Minister for Development and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. The FCDO uses a range of modelling and information sources to inform ODA funding decisions, including indicators on humanitarian need, the ability for a country to make effective use of aid and self-finance its own poverty reduction and reductions in the number of person poverty years (the number of poor people multiplied by the number of years they are expected to remain poor), in line with the IDS commitment to “channel the majority of our ODA towards low-income countries.