Select committee: International Development Committee

Recommendation 10

Sixth Report - UK aid to Pakistan Published 29 Apr 2022 Paragraph 17 Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Consequently, we recommend that, wherever possible, the FCDO should consider the benefits of delivering UK aid programmes through local NGOs in Pakistan. Where this is not possible, the FCDO should involve local organisations and communities in the planning and implementation of aid programmes by INGOs, or consider creating partnerships between local NGOs and larger and more experienced INGOs.

From: International Development Committee, Sixth Report - UK aid to Pakistan (HC 102), paragraph 17, 29 April 2022

Government response

The government responded to the whole report on 4 November 2022 (deadline 29 June 2022).

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government says its aim is to move Pakistan from a "traditional aid relationship to a mature development partnership", with fewer, smaller development objectives, while continuing support for girls, women and marginalised groups.

  • On the committee's call for long-term programmes, it says it "recognise[s] the importance of long-term approaches", and states that programme types and duration are based on the best available evidence and fit with UK priorities and the overall ODA budget allocation.
  • On the Integrated Delivery Plan, it says the plan was replaced in 2021 by a Country Plan, which is "an internal document", and that a "light-touch review" of the Country Business Plan will take place "in the next few months".
  • On NGO operating space, it commits that the FCDO "will write to the Committee within nine months to update on progress as requested".
  • On nutrition, it says it has "exited bilateral ODA finance of nutrition" because other donors are active, while continuing to fund UN agencies that provide nutrition policy and services.

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