Guidance

Glossary of terms used by the Department for International Development

Published 13 August 2013

1. A

Accession Countries	Countries in the process of joining the European Union.
Administrative Costs	DFID administrative costs include the running costs of DFID Headquarters, overseas costs of staff in agreed diplomatic posts concerned with full time aid administration, including Staff Appointed in Country employed by DFID; expenditure in respect of residual rent liability on the Chatham Maritime site arising from the terms agreed for the privatisation of DFID’s former next steps agency, the Natural Resources Institute; and those elements of Foreign and Commonwealth Office and CDC Capital Partners, formerly known as Commonwealth Development Corporation, administration costs which are related to aid delivery.
Aid effectiveness	A measure of the quality of aid delivery and maximising the impact of aid on poverty reduction and development
Aid Untying	The ending of the practice of most donors to insist that aid is spent on goods and services from the donor country in favour of giving unrestricted access to those who can compete best on price, quality and service.
AIDS	Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
Alignment	When donors base their overall support on partner countries’ national development strategies, institutions and procedures.
Annually Managed Expenditure (AME)	Government spending on programmes which are typically volatile and demand-led, and which are therefore not subject to firm multi-year limits in the same way as Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL).

2. B

Bali Action Plan	This is the outcome of the Bali Summit (December 2007) where after two weeks of intense negotiations, governments of more than 190 countries reached agreement on a roadmap for achieving a global climate change deal by the end of 2009.
Bilateral Aid	Bilateral aid is provided to developing countries and countries in transition on the Development Assistance Committee List on a country to country basis, and to institutions, normally in Britain, working in fields related to these countries.
BRICS	A group of 5 countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, with a growing influence and impact on regional and global issues. The UK works in areas where our BRICS partners want UK involvement as they develop their approaches; the BRICS strategy is very much a cross government strategy, and in some cases our work will take place through and with other UK government departments.
Budgetary assistance or Budget Support	Budget Support is a form of programmatic aid in which: a. Funds are provided in support of a government programme that focuses on growth and poverty reduction, and transforming institutions, especially budgetary; b. The funds are provided to a partner government to spend using its own financial management and accountability systems.
Business plan	Brings together Departmental priorities (ie our six priorities in the Structural Reform Plan) and our contribution to the Government’s new system of democratic accountability, through improved public transparency.

3. C

Civil Society Organisations	All Civic Organisations, associations and networks which occupy the “Social space” between the family and the State who come together to advocate their common interests through collective action. It includes volunteer and charity groups, parents and teachers associations, senior citizens groups, sports clubs, arts and culture groups, faith-based groups, workers clubs and trade unions, non-profit think-tanks and “issue-based” activist groups.
Concessional Resources	Development assistance with a grant element normally greater than 35%.
Conditionality	When donors require their developing country partners to do something in order to receive aid. If the condition is not fulfi lled it will generally lead to aid being interrupted or suspended. The UK policy on conditionality is that our aid is based on three shared commitments with partner governments: poverty reduction and meeting the MDGs; respecting human rights and other international obligations; and strengthening financial management and accountability and reducing the risk of funds being misused thorough weak administration or corruption. If partner governments move away from these conditions, we can suspend, interrupt, delay or change how we deliver our aid. We do not use conditions to impose specific policy choices on countries.
Conflict Pool	The Conflict Pool is governed and managed jointly by DFID, the FCO and MoD. It is a source of funding to support the UK government’s aims for preventing and managing international conflict. The cross-Whitehall Conflict Pool helps address global conflict, by bringing together the UK Government’s development, diplomatic, and defence interests.
Countries in transition	Term used to describe former Soviet countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and China, Mongolia and Vietnam.
Country Assistance Plans (CAPs)	DFID has produced or is producing Country Assistance Plans for all countries where we provide development assistance programmes. These plans, produced in consultation with governments, business, civil society, and others within the country concerned and within the UK, set out how we aim to contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals in the country in question. Country Assistance Plans are normally intended to cover a three to four year period. For some groups of countries a Regional Strategy Paper is produced.
Country-led approaches	Where donors allow partner countries to take the lead in the design and delivery of development and provide support to partner counties.

4. D

Debt Relief	Debt Relief may take the form of cancellation, rescheduling, refinancing or re-organisation. Interest and principal foregone from debt cancellation forms part of DFID programme expenditure whilst other debt relief is funded from other official sources. a. Debt cancellation (or Retrospective Terms Adjustment) is relief from the burden of repaying both the principal and interest on past loans; b. Debt rescheduling is a form of relief by which the dates on which principal or interest payments are due are delayed or rearranged; c. Official bilateral debts are re-organised in the Paris Club of official bilateral creditors, in which the UK plays its full part. The Paris Club has devised increasing generous arrangements for reducing and rescheduling the debt of the poorest countries; most recently agreeing new terms for the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative.
Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL)	The total spending limits for Government departments over a fixed period of time, excluding demand led and exceptionally volatile items. Departmental Expenditure Limits are planned and set at Spending Reviews. This is split between resource and capital budgets.
Developing Countries	see Development Assistance Committee: List of Aid Recipients below
Development Assistance Committee (DAC)	The Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is a forum for consultation among 22 donor countries and the European Commission, on how to increase the level and effectiveness of aid flows to all aid recipient countries. The member countries are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, European Commission, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and United States.
Development Assistance Committee: List of Aid Recipients	This list is in two parts. Part I shows developing countries and territories eligible to receive official development assistance. Part II shows countries and territories eligible to receive official aid. The list is designed for statistical purposes and not as guidance for aid or other preferential treatment. Part I: Developing Countries and Territories The list comprises all countries and territories: in Africa; in America except the United States, Canada, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Falkland Islands; in Asia except Japan, Brunei, Hong Kong, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore, Taiwan and United Arab Emirates; in the Pacific except Australia and New Zealand; plus Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Gibraltar, Malta, Moldova, Turkey and the states of former Yugoslavia in Europe. Part II: Countries and Territories in Transition The list comprises Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine, plus the more advanced developing countries which have moved from Part I of the List, namely Bahamas, Bermuda, Brunei, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Falkland Islands, Hong Kong, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore, Taiwan and United Arab Emirates. Note that Moldova moved to Part I of the List on I January 1997.
Direct Budget Support	See Budgetary Assistance or Budget Support

5. E

European Community (EC)	The 15 member states and the common institutions, notably the European Commission, co-operating on a range of economic and other issues in supra-national integration.
European Development Fund	The European Development Fund is the main route through which EC funds committed to the countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific under the Cotonou Convention are channelled.
European Union	Created by the Treaty of Maastricht 1992, which enhanced the integration of the European Community but also enabled the member states to co-operate together in an inter-governmental, not supra-national, way in the areas of Common Foreign and Security Policy Justice and Home Affairs.

6. F

Financial Aid	Financial Aid in the wider sense is defined as a grant or loan of money which is the subject of a formal agreement with the recipient government or institution. In practice it is all bilateral aid except technical co-operation and administrative costs.
Fragile states	Those states where the government cannot or will not deliver core functions to the majority of its people, including the poor.

7. G

G20	The Group of Twenty (G-20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was established in 1999 to bring together systemically important industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy. The G20 is the premier forum for our international economic development that promotes open and constructive discussion between industrial and emerging-market countries on key issues related to global economic stability.
G7/G8 Group	The G7 Group of major industrialised democracies comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the United States. The Group of Eight (G8) includes Russia. Their Heads of Government meet annually at the G7/G8 Summit to discuss areas of global concern.
General Budget Support	See Direct budget support and Poverty reduction budget support
Globalisation	The growing independence and interconnectedness of the modern world through increased flows of goods, services, capital, people and information. The process is driven by technological advances and reductions in the costs of integrated transactions, which spread technology and ideas, raise the share of trade in world production and increase the mobility of capital.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)	The total value of goods and services produced within a country.
Gross National Income	Previously known as Gross National Product, Gross National Income comprises the total value of goods and services produced within a country (i.e. its Gross Domestic Product), together with its income received from other countries (notably interest and dividends), less similar payments made to other countries.
Gross National Product	Gross national product comprises the total value of goods and services produced within a country (i.e. its gross domestic product), together with income received from other countries (notably interest and dividends), less similar payments made to other countries.

8. H

Harmonisation	Where donors co-ordinate their aid and use common procedures to ensure they are not duplicating work or placing unnecessary demands on their developing country partners.
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC)	An initiative launched by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in 1996 to provide debt relief to the poorest countries. Revised in 1999 to deliver twice as much debt relief as the original initiative.
HIV	Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Humanitarian Assistance	Humanitarian Assistance comprises disaster relief, food aid, refugee relief and disaster preparedness. It generally involves the provision of material aid including food, medical care and personnel) and finance and advice to save and preserve lives during emergency situations and in the immediate post-emergency rehabilitation phase; and to cope with short and longer term population displacements arising out of emergencies.

9. I

Income Groups	The classification of aid recipient countries by income groups is based on Gross National Income per capita figures in 1998 according to the thresholds set out below. low income group: countries with a Gross National Income per capita in 1998 of below $760; lower middle income group: countries with a Gross National Income per capita in 1998 of $761 to $3030; upper middle income group: countries with a Gross National Income per capita in 1998 of $3031 to $9360; high income group: countries with a Gross National Income per capita in 1998 of $9361 or above.
Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI)	To provide greater independent scrutiny of UK aid spending to deliver value for money for British taxpayers and to maximise the impact of the British aid budget
Institutional Strategy Papers	Institutional Strategy Papers are designed to set DFID’s partnerships with multilateral development institutions in a strategic framework. The papers are prepared in consultation with that institution and other interested parties and set out the objectives for our partnership with that institution. Institutional Strategy Papers have been or are being prepared for our main partner institutions and will normally be produced every three to four years.
Intellectual Property Rights	National and international systems provide for the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. Intellectual property constitutes private property rights over ideas and inventions. The principal Intellectual Property Rights are copyrights (material which can be reproduced only with permission of the owner, who can charge for it), patents (product designs or processes which can be used only with permission of the owner, who can charge for it), trademarks (registered marks that exclusively identify a product or economic entity, which cannot be used by others), and industrial designs.
Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s)	Persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalised violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognised state border.
International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI)	Aims to make public information on aid spending and activities more available and more accessible, worldwide.
International Development Association	Part of the World Bank Group which makes loans to countries at concessional rates (i.e. below market rates) of interest.
International Monetary Fund (IMF)	The International Monetary Fund aims to promote international monetary co-operation, exchange stability, and orderly exchange arrangements; to foster economic growth and high levels of employment; and to provide temporary financial assistance to countries to help ease balance of payments adjustment.
IPCC	Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Established in 1988, its first report provided the initial scientific evidence of climate change.

10. L

Least Developed Country	Least Developed Countries are those assessed as having particularly severe long-term constraints to development. Inclusion on the list of Least Developed Countries is now assessed on two main criteria: economic diversity and quality of life.
Low Income Countries	Countries in the Low Income Group, as defined in Income Groups.

11. M

Managing for results	Management strategies that focus on performance and improvements in country outcomes and provide a framework in which performance information is used for improved decision making.
Middle Income Countries	Countries in the lower middle and upper middle income groups (see Income Groups).
Millennium Development Goals	A set of eight international development goals for 2015, adopted by the international community in the UN Millennium Declaration in September 2000, and endorsed by IMF, World Bank and OECD.
Multilateral Aid	Aid channelled through international bodies for use in or on behalf of aid recipient countries. Aid channelled through multilateral agencies is regarded as bilateral where DFID specifies the use and destination of the funds.

12. N

Non governmental organisations (NGOs)	These are private non-profit making bodies which are active in development work. To qualify for official support, UK non-governmental organizations must be registered charities.

13. O

Official Aid	This is the equivalent, for countries on Part II of the Development Assistance Committee List, of official development assistance to countries on Part I of the Development Assistance List (i.e. developing countries). To qualify as official aid, resource flows should have the same concessional and qualitative features as official development assistance.
Official Development Assistance	Official development assistance is defined as those flows to developing countries and multilateral institutions provided by official agencies or by their executive agencies, which meet the following tests: a. it is administered with the promotion of the economic development and welfare of developing countries as its main objective;and b. it is concessional in character and conveys a grant element of at least 25%. Only aid to countries on Part I of the Development Assistance Committee List is eligible to be recorded as official development assistance.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)	A group of 30 industrial countries promoting growth and high employment among its members, fostering international trade and contributing to global economic development.
Ownership	Partner countries exercise effective leadership over their development policies and strategies and co-ordinate development actions.

14. P

Paris Declaration	The Paris Declaration is an international agreement in which over 100 countries and organisations committed to continue to increase efforts in harmonisation, alignment and managing aid for results with a set of monitorable actions and indicators.
Paris Declaration baseline survey	The Paris Declaration is an ambitious set of 56 commitments group under five principles of ownership, alignment, harmonisation, management for development results and mutual accountability. The Declaration includes 12 indicators with targets to monitor progress. These were assessed in a baseline survey in 2006 and 2008.
Partnership Programme Agreements	PPAs are agreements between DFID and influential civil society organisations in the UK which set out at a strategic level how the two partners will work together to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Strategic funding is provided, linked to to jointly agreed strategic objectives.
Poverty reduction budget support	Poverty reduction budget support is a form of financial aid in which funds are provided directly to a partner government’s central exchequer to support that government’s programmes. This can be in the form of general budget support (not directed at particular sectors) or sector budget support.
Poverty Reduction Strategies	Poverty Reduction Strategies are prepared by developing country governments in collaboration with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as well as civil society and development partners. These documents describe the country’s macroeconomic, structural and social policies and programmes to promote growth and reduce poverty, as well as associated external financing needs and major sources of financing.
Predictability	A measure of how predictable flows of aid to developing partner countries are. This includes the extent to which aid promised within a given year is delivered and how many years in the future donors provide information about aid to be provided.
Programme aid	Programme aid is financial assistance specifically to fund (i) a range of imports, or (ii) an integrated programme of support for a particular sector, or (iii) discrete elements of a recipient’s budgetary expenditure. In most cases, support is provided as part of a World Bank/International Monetary Fund co-ordinated structural adjustment programme.
Programme-based approaches	Programme-based approaches are funds provided to a sector to deliver a single programme, led by the partner country, with a single budget and a formal process for donor co-ordination, and that make efforts to increase the use of developing partner countries’ systems.
Public financial management	A PFM system has three key objectives: to maintain fiscal discipline (securing stewardship), keeping spending within limits created by the ability to raise revenue and keeping debt within levels that are not prohibitively expensive to service; to promote strategic priorities (enabling transformation) – allocating and spending resources in those areas that make the greatest contribution to the government’s objectives; and to deliver value for money (supporting performance) – efficient and effective use of resources in the implementation of strategic priorities.
Public Private Partnership	A Public Private Partnership brings public and private sectors together in partnership for mutual benefit. The term ‘Public Private Partnership’ covers a wide range of different partnerships, including the introduction of private sector ownership into businesses that are currently state-owned, the Private Finance Initiative, and selling Government services into wider markets.
Public Service Agreement	A set of measurable targets for the Department’s work, as required by the White Paper Public Services for the Future: Modernisation, Reform, Accountability (CM4181). See Annexes 2 & 3 for DFID’s Public Service Agreement.

15. R

Regional Development Banks

International Development Banks which serve particular regions, for example the African Development Bank or the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Remittances

Remittances are monies sent from one individual or household to another. International remittances are those sent by migrant workers who left their home country. Domestic remittances are those sent by migrant workers who left their home village or town to work elsewhere in their home country (e.g. rural-urban migration; sometimes also referred to as national remittances). Communal or collective remittances are monies sent by migrant associations or church groups to their home communities. Typically remittances are in cash rather than goods. Imports or goods purchased on location are, however, also common.

16. S

Scaling up	Identifying the most effective ways to channel additional resources in order to maximise impact on the MDGs.
Sector	One of the areas of recipient countries’ economic or social structures that aid is intended to support. DFID categorises its aid into eight broad sectors: Economic, Education, Health, Governance, Social, Rural Livelihoods, Environment and Humanitarian Assistance.
Sector wide approaches or sector investment programmes	A sector wide approach is a process that entails all significant donor funding for a sector supporting a single, comprehensive sector policy and expenditure programme, consistent with a sound macro-economic framework, under recipient government leadership. Donor support for a sector wide approach can take any form ­project aid, technical assistance or budgetary support ­ although there should be a commitment to progressive reliance on government procedures to disburse and account for all funds as these procedures are strengthened.
Security Sector	The security sector is defined as those who are, or should be, responsible for protecting the state and communities within the state. This includes military, paramilitary, intelligence and police services as well as those civilian structures responsible for oversight and control of the security forces and for the administration of justice.
Service Delivery Agreement	A document which defines the outputs and subsidiary targets which will contribute towards delivery of the targets in the Public Service Agreement.
Spending Review	A fundamental re-evaluation of priorities, objectives and targets by the UK Government, which establishes a three year planning cycle, including spending plans, for all departments. The 2000 Spending Review runs from 2003/04 to 2005/06.
Strategies for Achieving the International Development Targets (or Target Strategy Papers)	These DFID papers set out the key development challenges to be addressed in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The papers also explore the action needed by the international community, developing country governments, civil society, the private sector and others in order to achieve the targets. Finally the papers explain what DFID will do to contribute to that effort.
Structural reform plan	Key tools for holding departments to account for the implementation of Programme for Government commitments.

17. T

Technical Co-operation/Technical Assistance	Technical co-operation is the provision of advice and/or skills, in the form of specialist personnel, training and scholarship, grants for research and associated costs.

18. U

UK Aid transparency guarantee	Commits DFID to publish detailed information about new DFID projects and policies in a way that is comprehensive, accessible, comparable, accurate and timely.
UNFCC	United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This represents the international community’s collective response to climate change. It was established at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development which was held in Rio.
Untied aid.	Aid that is given where donors do not insist that it is spent on goods and services from the donor country, in favour of giving unrestricted access to those who can compete on best price, quality and service.

19. W

World Bank

The term World Bank is commonly used to refer to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association. Three other agencies are also part of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. Together these organisations are referred to as the World Bank Group.

World Trade Organisation

The World Trade Organisation exists to ensure that trade between nations flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible. To achieve this, the World Trade Organisation provides and regulates the legal framework which governs world trade. Decisions in the World Trade Organisation are typically taken by consensus among the 146 member countries and are ratified by members’ parliaments.