DFID’s approach to supporting inclusive growth in Africa
DFID doubled its expenditure on economic development in recent years to £1.8 billion a year, with the objective of promoting economic transformation and job creation.
Read the approach paper
- PDF download (79 KB)
- Published: 4 Oct 2016
Our approach
In recent years, the Department for International Development (DFID) has significantly increased its cross-departmental spending on economic development, more than doubling expenditure from around £800 million in 2011-12 to £1.8 billion in 2015-16. In 2017, DFID’s economic development portfolio represented around a fifth of its total combined bilateral and multilateral spend.
This review assesses the relevance and coherence of the portfolio, and how well DFID was learning as it scaled up its work. It assesses how DFID is delivering on its commitments to economic inclusion and job creation in Africa and examines how well DFID has identified contextual barriers to inclusive growth and used this analysis to inform its overall approach and the composition of its portfolios.
This is a learning review that offers a real-time view of a rapidly changing and relatively untested area of the UK aid programme. It takes a snap shot of the relevance and effectiveness of DFID’s programming, and we expect our findings to inform the continuing development of its economic development portfolio.
Review questions
- Relevance: Does DFID have a credible approach to promoting inclusive growth and jobs in Africa?
- Effectiveness: How effectively does DFID programming target the poor and marginalised?
- Learning: How well has DFID learned from its research, diagnostic work and past programming to inform its approach to inclusive growth and job creation?