The NAO is publishing a suite of Departmental Overviews, one for each government department and a selection of cross-government issues, to assist House of Commons Select Committees and Members of Parliament.
This report focuses on what Official Development Assistance spending is achieving in practice.
This Overview summarises the Department’s responsibilities on how it spends its money and its key developments of work.
Official Development Assistance is being increasingly spent by departments other than the Department for International Development.
The NAO has conducted an investigation into DFID’s approach to tackling fraud, following an increase in the potential risks after the government committed to spend 0.7% of GDP on foreign aid.
The Department for International Development has improved its oversight of CDC and has directed it to address many of the weaknesses previously identified by Parliament. However, it remains a significant challenge for CDC to demonstrate its ultimate objective of creating and making a lasting difference to people’s lives in some of the world’s poorest places.
This guide is designed to provide a quick and accessible overview of the Department for International Development and focuses in particular on where we believe the Department’s performance could be improved, using examples from our published work.
The St Helena airport’s planned opening date in May 2016 has been postponed as outstanding safety concerns are addressed, potentially adding to the project’s cost and delaying its benefits.
The Department for International Development’s spending on humanitarian interventions has almost trebled between 2010-11 and 2014-15 to more than £1 billion per year, rising as a share of its total budget from 6% to 14%.
The NAO’s memorandum, for the International Development Committee, provides an overview of trends in UK spending on aid.
