Corporate report

Single departmental plan: 2015 to 2020

Updated 1 September 2016

This was published under the 2015 to 2016 Cameron Conservative government

This corporate report was withdrawn on 14 December 2017

This has been replaced by another version.

£11.1bn Total Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) in financial year 2015 to 2016

This includes £8.5bn resource DEL and £2.6bn capital DEL. Of this £10.0bn TDEL (split £7.3bn RDEL and £2.6bn CDEL) is spent directly by DFID. As set out in DFID’s settlement letter £1.2bn was transferred, along with all accountabilities, to other departments and funds such as FCO, BIS and the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund.

Source: Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015

Vision

We are a modern, compassionate one nation government. We firmly believe that spending 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) on international development – alongside our commitment to spend 2% on defence – means our country walking taller in the world. Britain can be proud to be a country that not only meets its responsibilities to the world’s poorest, but in doing so best serves and protects its own security and interests.

The Department for International Development (DFID) leads the UK’s work to end extreme poverty, deliver the Global Goals, and tackle global challenges in line with the government’s UK Aid Strategy. Our aid budget is spent on tackling the great global challenges – from the root causes of mass migration and disease, to the threat of terrorism and global climate change – all of which also directly threaten British interests. We are ending the need for aid by building peaceful and stable societies, creating jobs and strong economies, fighting corruption, unlocking the potential of girls and women, tackling climate change and helping to save lives when humanitarian emergencies hit. We are doing this because it is both the right thing to do and firmly in Britain’s national interest.

DFID reports on results achieved in the annual report. More detail on how the UK invests in developing countries is available through the online UK Development Tracker.

Our ministers and management

Objectives

1. Strengthening global peace, security and governance
2. Strengthening resilience and response to crisis
3. Promoting global prosperity
4. Tackling extreme poverty and helping the world’s most vulnerable

  Further detail on achievements, activities and progress against results, is in DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16.

1. Strengthening global peace, security and governance

Lead minister: The Rt Hon Priti Patel MP, Secretary of State for International Development

Lead official: Nick Dyer, Director General for Policy and Global Programmes

1.1 What DFID is doing

The government is investing more to tackle the causes of instability, insecurity and conflict, and to tackle crime and corruption. This is fundamental to poverty reduction overseas, and will also strengthen our own national security at home.

Peace, security and good governance are the building blocks of stable, successful societies. The 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) sets out how our national security and poverty reduction are fundamentally linked. Over the last 15 years we have seen extraordinary reductions in the number of people living in extreme poverty. But it is often people who live in fragile and unstable places who remain in poverty. Over the next four years DFID will work alongside other government departments to implement the SDSR. We will invest more to tackle the causes of instability, insecurity and conflict, and to address crime and corruption.

We will work with developing country partners to support the rule of law, strong and accountable government, and gender equality and we will promote British values around the world. This work helps the world’s poorest and protects our national security by helping prevent terrorist safe havens and tackling some of the root causes of migration.

We will:

• ensure the OECD aid rules fully reflect the importance of peace, stability and effective institutions for reducing global poverty
• help men, women and children who have fled violence in Syria
• continue to work with partners across government for peace, stability and an inclusive settlement in Syria
• spend at least 50% of the DFID budget on fragile states and regions in every year of the current Parliament, including increasing funding to deal with causes and impacts of the Syrian crisis
• strengthen the Commonwealth’s focus on promoting democratic values and development
• continue to promote the golden thread of democracy, the rule of law, property rights, and open, accountable institutions
• boost partnerships between UK institutions and their counterparts in the developing world
• ensure developing countries have full access to global automatic tax information exchange systems and continue to build the capacity of tax authorities in developing countries. DFID will double spend on improving tax systems in developing countries by 2020
• lead the world in tackling sexual violence in conflict

1.2 How DFID is doing

Tackling fragility and building stability overseas

The Strategic Defence and Security Review, published on 23 November 2015, committed at least 50% of the DFID budget to be spent in fragile states and regions in each year of the current Parliament. We are on track to achieve this commitment. Source: DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16

Promoting accountability and transparency and tackling corruption

Between April 2015 and March 2016, DFID supported 11 countries to manage their public finances (including natural resources and extractives) more transparently. Source: DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16

Helping poor countries make better use of their own resources

From April 2015 to March 2016, DFID invested £32.6 million on improving tax systems in developing countries, up from £22.6 million last year. DFID is on track to meet its commitment, as a founder of the Addis Tax Initiative, to double spend on improving tax systems in developing countries by 2020. Source: DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16

2. Strengthening resilience and response to crisis

Lead minister: The Rt Hon Priti Patel MP, Secretary of State for International Development

Lead official: Nick Dyer, Director General for Policy and Global Programmes

2.1 What DFID is doing

The UK is a world leader both in responding to humanitarian crises and in building resilience against future crises. That includes providing support for ongoing crises including that in Syria and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, science and technology spend on global public health risks such as antimicrobial resistance, and support for efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

The ability to respond swiftly, flexibly and generously means that Britain can help people at the most difficult times in their lives, and lead by example in bringing the rest of the world with us. This also helps us to protect our own security. We will continue to invest in research and development, building resilience to shocks and instability, for example supporting investments in global public health through the Ross Fund.

We will:

• continue to lead the response to humanitarian emergencies, and establish a means to respond rapidly to crises
• work to prevent climate change and assist the poorest in adapting to it. The Government has committed to increase climate funding by 50% to at least £5.8 billion over the next five years. Of this, DFID will spend at least £3.6bn.

2.2 How DFID is doing

Responding fast and effectively to humanitarian disasters

Between April 2015 and March 2016, DFID reached 5.1 million people, including 1.6 million women and girls, with humanitarian assistance. Source: DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16

Helping manage climate change

In the last year, DFID spent £827 million on climate-smart development and activities that build resilience to climate change, up from £677 million the previous year. The Department is on track to meet its commitment to increase spending by 50% over the next five years. Source: DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16

3. Promoting global prosperity

Lead minister: The Rt Hon Priti Patel MP, Secretary of State for International Development

Lead official: David Kennedy, Director General for Economic Development

3.1 What DFID is doing

Global prosperity is vital for poverty reduction. The government will use Official Development Assistance (ODA) to promote economic development and prosperity in the developing world. This will contribute to the reduction of poverty and also strengthen UK trade and investment opportunities around the world.

No country can eradicate poverty or graduate from aid without economic growth. The World Bank estimates that developing countries will need to create 1 billion more jobs by 2030 to match their growing young populations. Our aid budget helps us to lay the building blocks for prosperity and opportunity – not only improving the lives of people across the world, but improving their country’s economic prospects – and in turn, our own prosperity at home. Ensuring that people have sustainable jobs and livelihoods also helps tackle the root causes of migration and violent extremism. Our work will focus on putting in place the enabling conditions for market development and catalytic investment across key sectors where there is growth potential (for example commercial agriculture, manufacturing, energy and infrastructure). We will aim to ensure that nobody is left behind as development takes place, and that girls and women and young people have access to productive jobs. We will work with a full range of partners, including across Whitehall, governments, International Financial Institutions, the private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

We will:

• boost growth and jobs, making it easier for people to start up businesses and trade freely with each other
• help people in the UK give or lend money directly to individuals and entrepreneurs around the world
• increase catalytic investments (“Development Capital Investment”) to support the creation of productive jobs, both directly and through demonstration effects
• strengthen incentives for CDC (the UK’s Development Finance Institution) to invest in sectors and geographies which maximise development impact. This will include increasing investment in fragile states
• work to increase the global economic empowerment of women and girls

3.2 How DFID is doing

Catalytic investment to create more, better and inclusive jobs and incomes

From April 2015 to March 2016, DFID invested £505 million in Development Capital (DevCap) to create more and better inclusive jobs that benefit people across society, including women. Source: DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16

Impact of investment on development

CDC achieved a development impact portfolio score of 3.15 (out of a maximum of 4), which demonstrates that CDC investments are allowing companies to grow and create more, better and inclusive jobs and incomes in countries where the capital for growth is otherwise in short supply. Source: DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16

4. Tackling extreme poverty and helping the world’s most vulnerable

Lead minister: The Rt Hon Priti Patel MP, Secretary of State for International Development

Lead official: Lindy Cameron, Director General for Country Programmes

4.1 What DFID is doing

The government is committed to work with others to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030, and support the world’s poorest. The new Global Goals are a major landmark in our fight against global poverty and the UK can be proud of Britain’s leading role in securing them. The world now has the opportunity to end extreme poverty in the next 15 years, which is the right thing to do and firmly in our national interest. The government will strive to eliminate extreme poverty, ensure that every person has access to basic services, continue to work to increase voice, choice and control for girls and women, and help meet our commitment to ensure that no one is left behind.

We will:

• save 1.4 million children’s lives, by immunising 76 million children against killer diseases by 2020
• help at least 11 million children in the poorest countries gain a decent education
• improve nutrition for at least 50 million children under 5, women of childbearing age and adolescent girls by 2020
• promote girls’ education, encourage equal access to property rights and work to achieve access to family planning for everyone who wants it. We are committed to helping an additional 24 million girls and women (between 2012 and 2020) to access family planning
• help at least 60 million people get access to clean water and sanitation, to stop terrible diseases
• lead a major new global programme to accelerate the development of vaccines and drugs to eliminate the world’s deadliest infectious diseases
• invest to save lives from malaria
• work to end preventable child and maternal deaths
• continue to lead efforts to tackle violence against women and girls, end FGM and combat early and forced marriage

4.2 How DFID is doing

The UK successfully pushed for new global goals to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030 and promote human development, gender equality and good governance.

Supporting children to gain a decent education

During the last year, DFID supported 3.1 million children to gain a decent education – meaning DFID is on track to meet its commitment of supporting 11 million children to gain a decent education by 2020. Source: DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16

Giving poor people access to clean water and sanitation

From April 2015 to March 2016, DFID supported 11.3 million people to access clean water and/or better sanitation - on track to meet DFID’s commitment of 60 million by 2020. Source: DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16

Improving nutrition for the most vulnerable

In the last year, DFID reached 13.3 million children under 5, women of childbearing age and adolescent girls through our nutrition-relevant programmes. DFID is on track to meet its commitment of improving nutrition for at least 50 million people by 2020. Source: DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16

Saving lives by immunising against preventable diseases

In 2015, it is estimated that DFID support immunised approximately 20 million children, saving 250,000 lives. We are on track to meet DFID’s commitment of immunising 76 million children and saving 1.4 million lives by 2020. Source: DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16

Giving women and girls choice through access to modern methods of family planning

DFID enabled 5.9 million women from 2012 to 2015, and 1 million women in 2015–16, to use modern methods of family planning. This gives a total of 6.9 million for the period 2012–16 - on track to meet DFID’s commitment of 24 million additional family planning users between 2012 and 2020. Source: DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16

Value for money and delivering efficiently

What DFID is doing

Reducing poverty, tackling global challenges and serving our national interest are inextricably linked. We will ensure that every penny of money spent delivers value for taxpayers, and projects that do not will be cancelled. We will continue to support the UK public in having a greater role and say in aid spending.

We will ensure that aid is spent effectively and efficiently, and reflects Britain’s strong interest in a more stable and prosperous world. We will build on what we have already done to cut waste, introduce even greater transparency and ensure robust independent scrutiny and effective lesson-learning. We will continue to take a lead internationally in pushing for higher transparency standards worldwide. We will fulfil our obligation under the 2015 International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Act to make arrangements for independent evaluation of the extent to which UK ODA represents value for money.

DFID has rigorous internal systems and processes to ensure aid reaches intended beneficiaries and delivers results. We deliver value for money at a strategic level by working with our international partners to improve the impact of all development finance; at a portfolio level by allocating our resources to maximise impact; at a programme level by designing, procuring, managing and evaluating our interventions to maximise impact; and at an administrative level by ensuring that the way we work as an organisation maximises the impact that our people and resources can have.

We will:

• continue to meet the target of allocating 0.7% of gross national income as official development assistance
• support other departments in assessing whether spending proposals meet OECD ODA rules and in sharing best practice on aid delivery
• continue to be responsible for reporting all ODA spending to the OECD on an annual basis, and for reporting to Parliament on the government’s performance against the 0.7% GNI target
• keep aid untied
• insist that every government and organisation we fund meets global transparency standards
• expand payment by results and ensure all money to governments is clearly earmarked for specific purposes
• triple the size of the International Citizen Service
• double our successful Aid Match scheme
• drive efficiency and effectiveness in all our programmes and deliver £400 million of efficiency savings

How DFID is doing

UK Official Development Assistance as a proportion of gross national income

DFID met the international commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income on Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2015. Source: DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16

0.7%

The UK is committed to spending this proportion of gross national income on Official Development Assistance, with the commitment now enshrined in law.

HM Treasury are responsible for the allocation of ODA resources across government departments, and departments are accountable for the quality and value for money of their ODA spend.

Source: Statistics on International Development, DFID

Portfolio quality

The performance of every programme, irrespective of value, is reviewed in each year of its life to assess whether it is on track to deliver the benefits at the costs expected in the business case. DFID uses an index of portfolio quality (PQI) to measure the extent to which projects are on track to deliver their expected outputs. The PQI provides a measure of how well the aggregate portfolio of projects (weighted by value of project) is performing, with a range from 50 (outputs substantially did not meet expectation) to 150 (outputs substantially exceeded expectation). Between April 2015 and March 2016, DFID increased the Portfolio Quality Index from 99 to 103, indicating that on average DFID’s outputs met or exceeded expectations. Source: DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16

Delivering efficiency in DFID

What DFID is doing

DFID continues to evolve to ensure we are effective in an increasingly complex world where countries’ needs are changing and development assistance is falling as a proportion of total financial flows to developing countries. We will continue to review our activities to ensure we deliver aid to tackle the great global challenges - from the root causes of mass migration and disease, to the threat of terrorism and global climate change. We will work with our delivery partners to maximise the impact of each pound spent and to ensure that the best results can be gained for taxpayers’ money.

DFID will work more closely with other UK government departments to address increasingly complex global challenges, using cross government funds to tackle instability, drive prosperity and invest in research and development.

DFID has re-engineered and strengthened programme and financial management systems, procedures and controls through the department’s Better Delivery reforms. Underperforming programmes are identified systematically and robust remedial steps taken; those failing to improve are closed.

We will continue to drive improvements in programme delivery, by strengthening our internal control architecture, improving the way we manage risk to maximise returns, and further enhancing our high standards of transparency, accountability, counter-fraud and anti-corruption.

DFID’s procurement team drives suppliers to demonstrate continual improvement in value for money, and we are committed to delivering savings through collaborative procurement over the next four years. Our commitment to expand Payment by Results will ensure even more efficient delivery of results.

How DFID is working collaboratively across government

The UK Aid Strategy makes it clear that delivering our development goals, including meeting the government’s commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income on development, requires a whole of government approach. DFID works with other Official Development Assistance (ODA) spending departments to ensure that UK ODA complies with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ODA rules. We continue to share our experience and best practice in programme delivery with ODA spending departments and funds, and DFID will be collaborating closely with the new Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Source: DFID Annual Report and Accounts, 2015-16

We will work collaboratively with Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and other government departments to deliver transformational change in key areas, including:

• developing digital solutions that meet common standards set by the Government Digital Service and utilise cross-government platforms such as GOV.UK Verify, GOV.UK Pay or GOV.UK Notify as part of departmental digital services wherever this demonstrates the best value money solution for government
• rationalising our estate in a joined-up way, looking to develop ‘government hubs’ with other government departments, releasing land for housing where possible and participating in the development of the new commercial property model
• delivering savings in our commercial relationships including through spend on common goods and services, delivered in partnership with Crown Commercial Services. Continuing to build our commercial capability and working with Crown Commercial Services to deliver the government’s 33% commitment of our spend with SMEs by 2020
• working in partnership with: the Cabinet Office to deliver transformation plans for arm’s length bodies (ALB); Infrastructure and Projects Authority on major projects programmes and prioritisation; and reducing losses through fraud and error alongside developing a debt management strategy