By Judith Ugwumadu | 22 October 2013
British MPs have urged the Independent Commission for Aid Impact to beef up its reporting on the effect of UK aid and the lessons that can be learned.
ICAI published it annual report for 2012/13, the second it has produced, in June. It identified a number of ‘key themes’ arising from its review of aid projects that the Department for International Development should consider. These included staff capability, the role of partner governments and a lack of clarity on administrative costs.
However, in its review of ICAI’s annual report, the House of Commons international development committee recommended that in future the aid watchdog should expand its discussion of these themes.
‘Given ICAI’s mandate to examine the impact of UK aid, we believe it should devote a section of its report to a longer overview of its assessment of the impact of UK aid during the previous year,’ said the committee.
‘We recommend this include analysis of overarching lessons for DFID.’
Simon Maxwell, a senior research associate at the Overseas Development Institute and adviser to the IDC, told the committee that he found ICAI’s key themes to be ‘somewhat unadventurous and cautiously written’.
