Alex StannardStatistician27 May 2008

Donor Experiences of Development Aid Statistics –

United Kingdom

1 Palace Street, London SW1E 5HEAbercrombie House, Eaglesham Road, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 8EA

Page 2

Increasing demand for aid statistics

• Make Poverty History• G8 2005 promises• 0.7% commitment

Page 3

UK Official Development Assistance as % of GNI

Target

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Perc

ent

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Aid statistic customers

• Parliament• Internal DFID Management• International bodies• Other donors• General public• NGOs• Lobby groups

Page 5

Four reporting obligations

• UK International Development Reporting and Transparency Act

• Created statutory requirement for DFID to report aid statistics, DFID ownership of UK ODA reporting

• International Reporting• Reports provided DAC, both DAC

questionnaire and CRS database

• Freedom of Information• Questions from general public, if data or

analysis exists DFID is obliged to answer

• Parliamentary Questions (PQs)• Questions from Parliament, DFID obliged to

answer

Page 6

UK International Development Reporting and Transparency Act

• Created statutory requirement for DFID to report aid statistics• Annual Report• Aid effectiveness• Reports on the impact of UK aid in at least

20 countries• Millennium Development Goals• Future spending plans• Aid expenditure statistics• Progress towards 0.7%

Page 7

International reporting

• DAC Reporting• DAC Advanced Questionnaire

• High level aggregates• March deadline

• Main DAC Questionnaire• Detailed country and sector data• July deadline

• CRS Reporting• Very detailed project information• Quarterly reports

Page 8

CRS++ - A new way to report to the DAC

• Replaces CRS reports• Allows DAC reports to be built from CRS

reports• Very detailed project information

collected• Reduced costs and guarantees

consistency

Page 9

Finance and Corporate Performance Division main contact with the DAC on aid statistics

DFID

Regional Divisions

FinanceCorporate

Performance Division

Europe andDonor

Relations Department

Central Divisions

InternationalDivisions

Page 10

National reporting

• Departmental Report• External, published on DFID website• Meets requirements of Reporting and

Transparency Act and reports on impact of aid

• Resource accounts• External, published on DFID website• DFID’s official accounts

• DAC reporting• External, published on DAC website• Meets UK’s DAC obligations

• Quarterly Management Report• Internal• Measures progress against DFID priorities

Page 11

Statistics on International Development

• Main UK aid publication• Gives DFID aid expenditure and UK ODA• Data by country, sector and funding type• Main source for UK only aid statistics• Based on same data that is reported to

the DAC• Classed as a National Statistic - strict

guidelines for production

Page 12

New demands for information – Paris Declaration

Publishing Project Information• All project design documentation

published on DFID website• Increase:

• Transparency• Accountability• Knowledge

CRS++• Detailed project information provided to

the DAC

Page 13

DFID’s data collection system

• Single database• Collects all project information (design,

implementation and evaluation)• Used to produce Statistics on

International Development and reporting to the DAC

• Project officers enter data• Coding guidance essential

Page 14

Bilateral and multilateral spending

• Any expenditure through a multilateral is flagged

• It is classified as:Multilateral spending if

• Core contributions• Funding of secondees to multilaterals• Capacity building of multilaterals

Bilateral spending if• Non core contributions - Country, sector,

theme or individual project is identified• Core contributions to NGOs

Page 15

How to identify sector spending

• Sector codes• DAC has one sector code per project• DFID uses multiple sector coding• DFID sector codes based on DACs

• Cross cutting markers• HIV and AIDS• Gender

Page 16

Other reporting issues

• All UK aid untied• General Budget Support

• Reported to DAC as lump sum• UK notionally allocates GBS to sectors

• Spending targets• International and UK• Progress needs to be measured• Appropriate methodologies• In year progress measured

Page 17

Other reporting issues

• Monitoring and evaluation• How and where multilaterals use UK

contributions• Other UK government departments

contribute towards UK ODA• Conflict prevention• Debt relief• Environment Ministry• Ministry of Health• Foreign Office projects

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DFID as percent of total UK ODA

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

2004 2005 2006

£m

illi

ons

DFID Non-DFID

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Strengths and Weaknesses of UK system

Strengths Weaknesses

Open and transparent Too many reports

More detail than DAC Differences with DAC

Dedicated statistical resources

Different measures

Easily accessible statistics

Other Government Departments

Burden on project officers