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Select committee: International Development Committee

Third Special Report - The Newton Fund review: report of the Sub-Committee on the work of ICAI: Government response to the Committee’s Third Report

Published 8 September 2020

International Development Committee Report on parliament.uk ↗

At a glance

The government's response

This document responds to Third Report - The Newton Fund review: report of the Sub-Committee on the work of ICAI.

This is the government's response, published 8 September 2020.

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

BEIS states that it "welcomes the scrutiny and insights" of the sub-committee and records "Accept (in progress)" on most of the seven recommendations, "Partially accept" on the formal review of matched funding, and states that some measures depend on the Integrated Review and Spending Review.

  • On value for money and strategy, BEIS records "Accept (in progress)". It recognises the Fund lacked an agreed Theory of Change and written strategy at inception, and says it is "on track" to begin onboarding the Research ODA platform in October.
  • A fund-level strategy will be developed only "after the outcome of the Integrated Review and the Spending Review"; the response says work was delayed by COVID-19.
  • On the matched funding review, the position is "Partially accept". BEIS maintains the Fund does not breach untying commitments, and states that "a formal review at this stage is not considered proportionate or necessary".
  • On publishing information on a single platform, BEIS records "Accept (in progress)" but says RODA "will not replicate a single platform" as published by DfID, and notes that "a one-size-fits-all approach may not be the most appropriate".

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error

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