UK aid spent by departments other than DFID

Around 13% of UK official development assistance (ODA) is spent by departments other than the Department for International Development (DFID). Our preliminary investigation maps spending and examines activities.

  1. Status: Completed
  2. Published: 20 February 2015
  3. Type: Other
  4. Subject: Cross-government aid spend, UK aid funds
  5. Assessment: Unrated
  6. Lead commissioner: Graham Ward CBE

Summary

UK official development assistance (ODA) spent by departments other than the Department for International Development (DFID) reached £1.4 billion in 2013 – an increase of £472 million since 2009. Most of this increase came from the establishment of the International Climate Fund and the expansion of the Conflict Pool.

During this period of rapid scale-up, some – including the International Development Committee – expressed concern that there might be a major increase in non-DFID ODA, to help reach the target, and that this might lead to inappropriate activities being included in the UK aid programme. There is relatively little information on non-DFID ODA in the public domain and this has contributed to stakeholders’ concerns.

This review looks at £140 million of 2013 ODA spent across eight departments. This is not a full ICAI review. We have not examined individual activities in the field to assess their effectiveness and value for money. We have not, therefore, scored individual programmes against our standard assessment framework.

Timeline

Review publication

Published 20 February 2015

Government response

Published 13 March 2015

ICAI follow-up

Published 30 June 2016