FCDO response to the Independent Commission for Aid Impact recommendations on: transparency in UK aid publication
Published 2 December 2022
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/icai-rapid-review-of-aid-transparency-fcdo-response/fcdo-response-to-the-independent-commission-for-aid-impact-recommendations-on-transparency-in-uk-aid-publication
The Government welcomes the Independent Commission for Aid Impact’s (ICAI) rapid review of Transparency in UK Aid. We welcome ICAI’s recognition of how transparency has helped promote accountability and the effectiveness of our aid. We also welcome and accept the recommendations that ICAI make which match the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) ambition for aid transparency. These ICAI recommendations, alongside the 2022 Aid Transparency Index review recommendations, provide a solid foundation for the department to build upon to improve the transparency of our ODA delivery.
We also note that there have been significant changes to the UK aid programme in recent years, including the merger of the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to form the FCDO and the impact of the pandemic and government policy changes on the resources available for development. The publication of a new UK International Development Strategy (IDS) has set a bold new approach to the UK’s approach to development and the FCDO is working to deliver that strategy.
The ICAI report highlights that the FCDO should retain a clear commitment to aid transparency to signal its continuing excellence in development cooperation, which we accept. The FCDO is clear that aid transparency supports accountability, efficiency and effectiveness of our work, and the recently published Open Government Partnership National Action Plan contains this continued commitment.
Our response to the recommendations stated in the ICAI report are outlined below.
Recommendation 1
The FCDO should set out clear and ambitious standards for transparency to be applied to all aid portfolios (including arm’s-length bodies) through its unified systems, including default and timely publication of full programme documents, and a rigorous process for assessing, approving and reporting on exclusions.
Accept
The FCDO publishes its aid data to the International Aid Transparency Initiative Standard, in line with cross government requirements. The FCDO is currently in the process of rolling out its single finance and HR IT system throughout the department, and subsequent to this will be able to bring all ODA programmes in the FCDO onto a single platform for programme management purposes.
The department will continue to publish to IATI monthly with the implementation of the single transparency process in 2023. However, during transition to the new system to support this, there will be a temporary halt in publication of programme data and information (January and February 2023) while the system is embedded, and data is migrated.
Having one unified system will allow for a unified transparency process, including putting in place the systems to assess, approve and collate information relating to exclusions of ODA programme data, a proportionate approvals process for publishing, systematic and timely publication of programme documents. We are currently looking into how the FCDO will address publication of arm’s-length bodies information in future. We expect this process to be completed in 2023.
Recommendation 2
The FCDO should commit to achieving a standard of ‘very good’ in the Aid Transparency Index by 2024.
Accept
The FCDO is committed to meeting the ‘Very Good’ standard in the Aid Transparency Index 2024. We understand the reasons why we did not reach ‘Very Good’ in 2022 ATI and we plan to address these. This includes publishing forward looking ODA allocations and improving our publication of forward-looking country development strategies.
Ongoing budget uncertainty and volatility around pressures on ODA allocations will mean that there continues to be challenges in managing them. This, in turn, presents challenges in producing and publishing country development strategies in good time for the start of the ATI data collection in early spring 2023. We recognise these challenges and will try to make the progress needed within the changing context.
Recommendation 3
The FCDO should resume publishing forward aid spending plans, cross departmental development results and country aid priorities.
Accept
The FCDO remains committed to publishing an Annual Report and Accounts that supports accountability and describes the FCDO programme allocations in an accurate and balanced way. We remain committed to this transparent approach and will provide updates to spending plans when those plans are finalised. The FCDO will publish available ODA data, including forward-looking allocations and country development strategies (including country priorities) when they are available and ready to publish (noting the challenges highlighted in Recommendation 2).
The FCDO is in the process of developing the monitoring framework for the International Development Strategy. This will complement the high-level departmental results published in the Outcome Delivery Plan.
Recommendation 4
In the FCDO priority countries, the department should work with other donors to support greater use of IATI data and other aid information sources, to strengthen aid effectiveness and accountability.
Accept
The FCDO is committed to supporting greater use of IATI data and other information across all recipient countries of ODA, and achieves this through our support to, and work with, IATI. We work closely with other donors in country to support development outcomes.
The FCDO is an active member of the International Aid Transparency Initiative, making a financial contribution to the running of the organisation as well as publishing to their standard monthly.
Prior to the merger, DFID fully engaged with other donors on developing the 5 year IATI strategic plan (2020 to 2025), which was agreed with all members in 2020. The FCDO is supportive of IATI’s aims, which include IATI’s work in supporting greater use of aid information in countries where this will enable decision making, and support and strengthen aid effectiveness and accountability. IATI’s strategy focuses more on data use in the second half of the strategy period. We will therefore continue to support IATI in its work with countries in this area, and continue to support IATI as an organisation, recognising the risks in IATI’s ongoing institutional changes.
The FCDO has re-established the xHMG Transparency Community of Practice and is working with ODA spending departments to implement the Open Government Partnership National Action Plan (OGP NAP), which was updated in August 2022. The OGP has a role to play in strengthening open societies and democracy around the world. It enables international development actors to coordinate and plan their activities more effectively.
The FCDO Transparency Team will work with our programme teams and statistics and results advisers at Posts to ensure staff recognise and understand the value of using IATI data and other aid information sources, to strengthen aid effectiveness and accountability.