Commonwealth responds to DFID review

The United Kingdom Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) has released the findings of its Multilateral Aid Review, which assessed the Commonwealth Secretariat and other multilateral organisations on their relevance to the UK’s objectives on poverty reduction.

In response to the review, the Secretariat said it looked forward to working with DFID to address the issues it raised but added that the Secretariat’s work is mandated by, and reflects the needs and priorities of its 54 member states, some of which may differ from those of the UK Government.

DFID manages the United Kingdom Government’s aid for poor countries, partly through contributions to multilateral organisations, including the World Bank, United Nations and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

It released the findings of its Multilateral Aid Review, which looked at the relevance of international agencies to the UK’s objectives on poverty reduction and their ability to deliver results on the ground, on Tuesday, 1 March 2011.

DFID provides funding for the Secretariat’s two main development programmes: the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation (CFTC) and the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP). The percentage of DFID’s total multilateral aid spend for 2009/2010 which went to the Secretariat was 0.319 per cent (£9.59 million), which accounts for around 30 per cent of the Secretariat’s combined CFTC and CYP budget. The DFID review acknowledged that, with a comparatively small total budget of less than £50 million per year, the Secretariat can only have a small scale delivery role.

Click here for the Secretariat’s response to DFID’s Multilateral Aid Review.