ICAI follow-up review of 2019-20 reports

Summary

Each year we conduct a follow-up assessment of ICAI reviews from the previous year. This process is an important step in the chain of accountability, providing the International Development Committee (IDC) and wider development stakeholders with evidence on whether the government has taken appropriate action in response to ICAI’s recommendations.

The follow-up process is also an opportunity for additional interaction between ICAI and responsible staff in aid-spending departments, offering feedback and learning opportunities for both parties. It is central to our work to support learning and improvements in UK aid delivery and to ensure maximum impact from our reviews.

Last year ICAI introduced a rating system to assess the progress made in each review that is being followed up for the first time, scoring them as either ‘adequate’ or ‘inadequate’. An inadequate rating can result from a combination of too little being done to address ICAI’s recommendations, the response not being sufficiently relevant, and/or the implementation being too slow.

The 2019-20 follow-up summarises our findings for the following three reviews:

• How UK aid learns 
• The UK’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative
• The changing nature of UK aid in Ghana 

We also looked again at four outstanding issues from previous follow-up exercises:

• Achieving value for money through procurement: DFID’s approach to value for money through tendering and contract management (“Procurement 2”)
• Assessing DFID’s results in maternal health 
• CDC’s investments in low-income and fragile states 
• The Newton Fund