Paper 1: Minutes and Actions of the 67th 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)

Jo-Ann Kelly (Secretariat

Nigel Thornton (Agulhas item 5 and 6)

Lauren Pett (Agulhas item 5 and 6)

Anne Hammerstad (Agulhas item 5 and 6)

Nick Dyer (FCDO item 5)

1. Minutes and actions from June 2022 Board

Commissioners agreed the minutes and discussed the actions from the June 2022 Board Meeting and progress against the actions. Commissioners noted that the actions were a rolling list, with actions removed on completion. Commissioners asked that the action on rewording the KPI on IDC feedback be completed immediately rather than at the end of the reporting year.

Action 1: The wording of the KPI on IDC satisfaction to be amended.

2. Business update

Commissioners noted the items raised in the business update.

Commissioners agreed the FLD/admin and programme budget forecasts. They noted the underspend on admin and FLD and noted that the programme forecast remained above the allocated budget.

Commissioners discussed the appointments process for the Phase 4 Chief Commissioner. The acting Head of Engagement and Commissioners would amplify the advertisement through their networks once it had been published in early October.

Commissioners discussed the latest progress on resourcing ICAI’s vacancies and the Head of Secretariat informed them of the promised support from FCDO on onboarding new staff. Commissioners expressed concern about the failure so far of any measures taken by FCDO to enable any new staff to join.

Head of Secretariat also informed Commissioners of extra administrative support being provided by the service provider.

3. Corporate risk register

Commissioners discussed the corporate risk register, noting the increased number of high risks and that a number of these were already becoming issues rather than risks. Commissioners asked that the risk of the impact on FCDO of the war in Ukraine adversely affecting ICAI’s workplan be removed from the corporate risk register.

Action 2: Head of Delivery to remove risk around war in Ukraine from risk register

4. Comms Update

The acting Head of Engagement updated the Commissioners on communication and engagement activity. Commissioners asked about the scheduling of IDC hearings and the number of slots that might be available before and after the Christmas recess. Two slots were likely before Christmas but dates had not been confirmed.

Action 3:  Acting Head of Engagement to continue to liaise with Committee clerks over IDC schedule and potential dates for hearings on ICAI reviews for remainder of 2022

5. Guest speaker – Nick Dyer, FCDO

Nick and Commissioners discussed the plan for transition to Phase 4, including the Commissioner recruitment, procurement of research support and ICAI’s future location. Commissioners raised with Nick the concerns they had about recruitment processes for ICAI secretariat staff. Nick also spoke about how the International Development Strategy was being taken forward and some of the specific challenges the department faced this year. These included the increased demands on the ODA budget and optimising the organisational structures for overseeing ODA spend across government.

6. Progress against current and future workplan – review capacity, resources and contingency planning

Commissioners discussed the progress against the current and future workplan. They discussed the challenges of completing this workplan and the ways of working that would have to be adopted, given the resourcing challenges ICAI faced.

Commissioners agreed that work on this year’s follow up should be commenced but work on the Blue Planet information note should be on hold for the moment.

Action Log from 67th Board Meeting Sept 2022