Development co-operation reviews : United Kingdom 1997

Description

The OECD Development Assistance Committee's 1998 review of the UK's development aid programs and policies. It finds that the United Kingdom is changing its approach to international development policy. The new British Government, elected in May 1997, has created a Department for International Development (DFID), headed by a Secretary of State within the Cabinet. This body has a much wider range of responsibilities than its predecessors, notably in ensuring the coherence of all British policies affecting development. For the first time in two decades, the government issued a White Paper on International Development. This document commits the government to the goal of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015, along with other key international development goals. In its triennial review of British aid policies and programmes, the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) welcomed the United Kingdom's new policies. It viewed the creation of DFID, with its broader responsibilities covering the whole range of bilateral and multilateral aid, the emphasis on strengthened international co-ordination, and the new role in securing consistency across all British policies affecting development as promising steps. The DAC also noted that in focusing its efforts on the eradication of extreme poverty, DFID, like its DAC partners, will need to emphasize the shaping of its programmes and the testing of their outputs with respect to their impact on the poor.  Read more... Summary and conclusions -- ch. 1. New policy framework and orientations -- A.A new government -- B. From the Overseas Development Administration (ODA) to the Department for International Development (DFID) -- C. Aid budget prospects -- 1. Overall ODA budget -- 2. Multilateral commitments -- D. Key policy directions -- 1. Focus on poverty -- 2. Coherence and internal co-ordination -- 3. Environment and natural resources -- 4. Good government and human rights -- Chapter 2. Features of the United Kingdom aid programme and aid management -- A. Major features -- 1. Instruments -- 2. Key themes related to reform: capacity development, technical co-operation and the social sector including gender -- 3. Process projects -- 4. Conflict, Peace and Development -- 5. Emergency and humanitarian aid -- 6. Aid co-ordination, development strategies and country strategies -- 7. Aid efficiency, effectiveness and results -- 8. Multilateral policies -- 9. Debt reorganisation, forgiveness -- 10. Public opinion, information and development education -- B. Aid management -- 1. Organisation -- 2. Decentralisation -- 3. Budget system -- 4. Staffing -- 5. Information systems (IS) -- 6. Aid procedures : the office instructions -- Chapter 3. Other elements of the United Kingdom programme -- A. Aid and Trade Provision (ATP) and mixed credits -- B. Private sector development and Commonwealth Development Corporation -- C. Non governmental organisations -- D. British Partnership Scheme (BPS) -- E. British Council -- F. The Commonwealth -- G. CEECs/NIS -- The Know How Fund and a new strategy for transition countries -- Chapter 4. Basic profiles -- A. ODA volume and outlook -- B. Composition and sectoral distribution of aid -- C. Geographical distribution -- D. Procurement, tied aid and associated finance.