3504 - Independent Commission for Aid Impact (Answered)

Mrs Anne Main
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how the reports, evidence and recommendations of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact are scrutinised within her Department.

Mr Desmond Swayne

DFID takes the work of Independent Commission on Aid Impact (ICAI) very seriously. Each study and follow up activity is overseen by a senior civil servant in DFID. ICAI reports are communicated to all relevant staff and published on DFID’s intranet. The Department then publishes a response, agreed by Ministers, to every ICAI recommendation setting out specific actions it will take. The Department also publishes an annual update on progress against previous recommendations online.

As ICAI noted in their follow-up report published in June 2015, “Country offices and teams within DFID centrally have both in their approach and in the actions taken, shown in most cases a serious intent to address the issues we have raised”.