Independent Commission for Aid Impact
The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) was officially launched by Secretary of State Andrew Mitchell and Chief Commissioner Graham Ward in 2011.
ICAI is the independent body responsible for monitoring the impact of UK aid. With scope to look at all UK Official Development Assistance (ODA), ICAI will scrutinise ODA spend by DFID and other government departments and will report to the UK Parliament through the House of Commons International Development Committee.
The creation of ICAI is an encouraging step for the scrutiny of UK aid and is something Bond members have been campaigning for.
Read ICAI’s three year workplan.
Read Bond's submission on ICAI
Latest ICAI reports on education, budget support and India published
On 18 May 2012, ICAI published their latest set of evaluations on DFID's education and health programmes in India, on DFID's education programmes in East Africa and on budget support.
The report on India highlights that DFID has made a positive contribution to improvements in health and education in India, Bihar State. On budget support, the main argument of ICAI is that this can be an effective mechanism to deliver aid but its impact depends heavily on the country context.
ICAI also reviewed DFID's education programmes in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania concluding that DFID support has been succesful in boosting enrolment rates yet did not focus enough on the quality of education. The review also highlighted that DFID should expand its support for communities to monitor education efforts and increase accountability.
The Global Campaign for Education, a coalition of international development organisations and teachers’ unions, responded postively to the ICAI reports on education: "We agree with the Commission's desire to ensure that the UK's aid to education not only improves access to school but also to what children learn whilst they are there. But its vital that in acknowledging the need to improve learning outcomes we also recognise the important role that the UK has already played in getting millions of children in India and East Africa into school.
"The Commission's report points out the vital role that communities have in monitoring government funding of and policies for education. It recommends that DFID should expand its support for communities to enable them to monitor education and promote accountability and we welcome this recommendation. DfID needs to ensure that its investments are effective and working with communities to help them monitor what's happening is an essential element that DfID should prioritise."
ICAI reports on value for money and corruption
In November 2011, ICAI published its first reviews of the UK aid programme, including outlining its methodology and its approach to Value for Money and Effectiveness and reviewing DFID’s Approach to Anti-Corruption.
Bond welcomed these reports and recommendations which reflect many of NGOs concerns particularly around the concept of Value for Money and the fight against corruption.
ICAI's concept of value for money
In its value for money report, the Commission sets out the parameter for assessing the impact of UK aid. Based on the interlinked concepts of value for money and effectiveness, the report explains how aid will be measured and reviewed focusing on 4 key indicators - objectives, delivery, impact and learning. A traffic light system will be used to highlight areas where more progress is needed.
The value for money concept - a widely used and discussed tool for measuring development these days - is based on the economic concept of the 4 Es - economy, efficiency, effectiveness, equity with a increased focus on the last e - equity in the context of international development. ICAI also considers the challenges to get the right balance between immediate and quantative results and qualitative changes and how to include long term sustainable development objectives in their assessments. This also mirrors NGO concerns that with the current focus on results and value for money there is a risk that the more qualitative aspects of development, such as empowerment, human rights, institutions reform and strengthening will be viewed as too ‘high risk’ when subjected to a value for money evaluation.
The methodology looks good on paper but will need to be tested against actual case studies and upcoming reports. There is less acknowledgement of the political nature of aid or of the way how ICAI will review long term changes in the limited time they have for their reports. But surely based on this methodology their reports will add value not only to scrutiny of UK aid but also to discussions around how to use the value for money and effectiveness concepts in measuring development.
Read the Bond Value for Money paper
Recommendations on corruption
Bond welcomes ICAIs recommendations on fighting corruption and hopes that these will strengthen and further improve the important anti-corruption work that DFID is doing. The red/amber traffic light score underlines the urgency and importance that ICAI attaches to tackling corruption and which is given additional credibility through the involvement of Kenyan anti corruption campaigner John Githongo as one of the Commissioners in ICAI.
Corruption is a serious concern particularly in fragile countries that DFID increasingly focuses on and DFID is very well placed to lead the way in international anti corruption mechanisms. Yet, concerns around corruption should not be a reason to not engage in fragile environments but rather to strengthen corruption risk assessments and other mechanims to counter fraud and bribery as the iCAI report outlines.
Bond also welcomes the ICAI’s recognition of the unique role that is played by civil society in tackling corruption. Bond members have been campaigning for stronger international bribery laws and more effective anti-corruption work by donors and are seeking to lead by example in preventing bribery in the operations of NGOs (see the Bond Anti-Bribery Principles and Guidelines for NGOs).
Bond members are very active in anti corruption work on a policy and practise level. There is a Bond Group focusing on corruption and working very closely with DFID and the recently established All Parties Parliamentary Group on corruption.
For any questions around Bond's work on monitoring UK aid and our engagement with ICAI please contact advocacy@bond.org.uk.
