Minutes and Actions of the 68th Board Meeting of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact

Board Members

Tamsyn Barton (Chief Commissioner and Chair)

Hugh Bayley (Commissioner)

Tarek Rouchdy (Commissioner)

Attendees

Andrew Forbes (Secretariat)

Ekpe Attah (Secretariat)

Gemma Roberts-Kinnear (Secretariat)

Goknur Ozer (Secretariat)

Leo Ehrnrooth (Secretariat)

Nigel Thornton (Agulhas item 8 and 9)

Lauren Pett (Agulhas item 8 and 9)

Anne Hammerstad (Agulhas item 8 and 9)

Mark Miller, Director of Development and Public Finance ODI (item 9 only)

1. Minutes and Actions from September 2022 Board

Commissioners discussed the minutes and actions from the September 2022 Board Meeting.

 Action 1: Secretariat to revise minutes to incorporate Commissioner comments on drafting.

2. Business Update

Commissioners noted the items raised in the Business Update.

The Head of Secretariat updated commissioners on progress with recruitment, noting two full time review managers were expected to start in January and February and that both the Head of Reviews and the Head of Communications and Engagement campaigns were progressing. Financial processes had now been completed for the interim review manager and this recruit would now likely start in the new year.

Commissioners noted the continued underspend in admin/FLD budgets arising largely from staff vacancies.

Commissioners discussed the 2023-24 Phase 3 programme budget allocation and the workplan to the end of the Commission.

Action 2: Head of Delivery to review 2022-23 budgets and proposed programme spend

3. Corporate Risk Register

Commissioners discussed the Corporate Risk Register, noting the proposed changes to some of the risks and the need for a new risk around using ICAI’s remaining Phase 3 budget effectively. Commissioners also discussed the requirement for a new risk relating to preparatory work for Phase 4 reviews, noting that the Secretariat do not currently have the staff in post to carry out this task.

Action 3: Head of Delivery to review and update the risk register to incorporate Commissioners’ comments including:

• Downgrade the risk relating to ICAI’s reduced effectiveness as a result of the turbulent organisational environment from red to amber
• Reword the risk relating to the Review of ICAI
• Review the new risk relating to planning for Phase 4 to incorporate Commissioners’ comments
• Add a new risk around using the remaining Phase 3 budget effectively

4. Communications Update

The acting Head of Communications and Engagement updated the Commissioners on communication and engagement activity. Issues discussed included which platforms encouraged the most engagement and whether all engagement activity was being captured.

The Chief Commissioner noted that despite the lower than anticipated engagement statistics for the Afghanistan review, she had been contacted personally by many stakeholders regarding this publication.

Commissioners discussed the use of Twitter as a platform and agreed that ICAI would continue to monitor developments there.

The Chief Commissioner thanked Sir Hugh for his assistance with recent engagement activities.

 Action 4:  Acting Head of Communications and Engagement to talk to Chief Commissioner about capturing all engagement with ICAI reviews

Action 5: Acting Head of Communications and Engagement to discuss ICAI’s routine engagement with the Libraries of the House with Sir Hugh

5. Transition to Phase 4 – verbal update from Head of Secretariat

The Head of Secretariat provided an update on progress with Phase 4 Commissioner recruitment. The closure of the recruitment campaign for the Chief Commissioner role was awaiting Ministerial sign-off before shortlisting can take place. Shortlisting was planned for January 2023 with the intention of identifying a successful candidate by the end of March 2023.

The advertisement for the part-time Commissioner roles would go live in December 2022.

The Phase 4 business case was still awaiting approval by the responsible FCDO Director. Assuming approval, the intention was that the FCDO Procurement team would hold an engagement event with interested suppliers in January 2023.

Commissioners discussed the challenges of the existing timeline for the award of the new service provider contract, the challenges in completing the Phase 3 workplan by the end of the commission, their thoughts on the proposed procurement model and the likelihood of a supplier being in place for July 2023.

6. Potential Phase 4 review topics

The Chief Commissioner presented her paper on the outcome of discussions with Commissioners on potential topics for Phase 4 reviews. The paper presented initial thinking and additional topics were discussed by the board. When it was fully staffed, the review team could do some initial scoping of topics.

7. Synthesis review scope discussion

Commissioners discussed the topics to be covered by the Synthesis review, noting that this will be a backwards looking report and will not include any forward look at Phase 4. Terms of Reference would be provided to the service provider in the new year.

Action 6:  Head of Delivery to circulate the Terms of Reference for the Phase 2 synthesis review

Action 7:  Chief Commissioner to provide a Terms of Reference for the Synthesis review by January 2023

8. Future workplan

The Review Manager updated Commissioners on progress with the workplan to the end of this commission in June 2023.

The Chief Commissioner noted her concerns about a potential delay to the publication of the Refugee review, which she would discuss with the Chair of the IDC.

The service provider updated the board on progress with reviews, requested sight of any outstanding Terms of Reference as soon as possible and shared their concerns about the publication date for the Refugees review.

9. Guest Speaker - Mark Miller, Director of Development and Public Finance, ODI

Mark Miller’s talk focused on the appropriateness of the use of SDGs as a guide for development policy, whether all SDGs were equally important in different countries and the relationship between aid and SDGs – ie whether aid is the most appropriate instrument to achieve these goals. There was also discussion around the challenges faced by the UK over the last few years in delivering aid effectively.

Action Log from 68th Board Meeting December 2022

Action Log from 67th Board Meeting September 2022