By Nick Mann | 22 March 2013

The UK Department for International Development needs to do more to ensure the United Nations Children’s Fund programmes it supports are producing good results and value for money, the aid watchdog said today.

In a report looking at Unicef programmes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone and Ghana, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact noted that the DFID trusted the UN body to carry out programmes in difficult environments and manage multiple delivery partners.

Between 2007 and 2011 the UK contributed £690m to Unicef, making it the second largest donor after the US. The programmes it helped to fund were providing results and ‘tangible benefits’ for the communities they aimed to help, the commission said.

But it also found evidence of ‘delays and shortfalls’ as well as ‘questionable’ value for money. In addition, the department was not managing its relationship with Unicef in a ‘systematic’ manner, using a relatively light touch compared with how it managed other delivery partners.

The watchdog rated the work ‘green-amber’ under its traffic light system. This means it performs relatively well overall against its criteria for value-for-money and effectiveness but improvements are needed.

ICAI chief commissioner Graham Ward said: ‘DFID has a strong relationship with Unicef. We recommend that the department uses its influence to strengthen Unicef’s management of programmes, with a greater focus on delivery and results.’

In particular, the department needed to change its relationship with Unicef by maintaining greater oversight of its work with the fund as a whole, as well as strengthening its management of local programmes.

It should also negotiate a new global ‘Framework Agreement’, clarifying issues relating to procurement and taking a similar approach to the way it manages commercial contractors.

A DFID spokeswoman said: ‘We are pleased that ICAI has found that our work with Unicef is delivering real and tangible benefits for many of the poorest communities. DFID is determined to get even better value for money and more effective aid from multilateral agencies, which is why we have improved oversight and stepped up our focus on delivery and results.’