1. Donor Experiences of Development Aid Statistics – United Kingdom
Alex Stannard
Statistician
27 May 2008
1 Palace Street, London SW1E 5HE
Abercrombie House, Eaglesham Road, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 8EA

2. Increasing demand for aid statistics
Make Poverty History
G promises
0.7% commitment

3. UK Official Development Assistance as % of GNI

4. Aid statistic customers
Parliament
Internal DFID Management
International bodies
Other donors
General public
NGOs
Lobby groups

5. Four reporting obligations
UK International Development Reporting and Transparency Act
Created statutory requirement for DFID to report aid statistics, DFID ownership of UK ODA reporting
International Reporting
Reports provided DAC, both DAC questionnaire and CRS database
Freedom of Information
Questions from general public, if data or analysis exists DFID is obliged to answer
Parliamentary Questions (PQs)
Questions from Parliament, DFID obliged to answer

6. UK International Development Reporting and Transparency Act
Created statutory requirement for DFID to report aid statistics
Annual Report
Aid effectiveness
Reports on the impact of UK aid in at least 20 countries
Millennium Development Goals
Future spending plans
Aid expenditure statistics
Progress towards 0.7%

7. International reporting
DAC Reporting
DAC Advanced Questionnaire
High level aggregates
March deadline
Main DAC Questionnaire
Detailed country and sector data
July deadline
CRS Reporting
Very detailed project information
Quarterly reports

8. CRS++ - A new way to report to the DAC
Replaces CRS reports
Allows DAC reports to be built from CRS reports
Very detailed project information collected
Reduced costs and guarantees consistency

9. Finance and Corporate Performance Division main contact with the DAC on aid statistics

10. National reporting Departmental Report Resource accounts DAC reporting
External, published on DFID website
Meets requirements of Reporting and Transparency Act and reports on impact of aid
Resource accounts
DFID’s official accounts
DAC reporting
External, published on DAC website
Meets UK’s DAC obligations
Quarterly Management Report
Internal
Measures progress against DFID priorities

11. Statistics on International Development
Main UK aid publication
Gives DFID aid expenditure and UK ODA
Data by country, sector and funding type
Main source for UK only aid statistics
Based on same data that is reported to the DAC
Classed as a National Statistic - strict guidelines for production

12. New demands for information – Paris Declaration
Publishing Project Information
All project design documentation published on DFID website
Increase:
Transparency
Accountability
Knowledge
CRS++
Detailed project information provided to the DAC

13. DFID’s data collection system
Single database
Collects all project information (design, implementation and evaluation)
Used to produce Statistics on International Development and reporting to the DAC
Project officers enter data
Coding guidance essential

14. Bilateral and multilateral spending
Any expenditure through a multilateral is flagged
It is classified as:
Multilateral spending if
Core contributions
Funding of secondees to multilaterals
Capacity building of multilaterals
Bilateral spending if
Non core contributions - Country, sector, theme or individual project is identified
Core contributions to NGOs

15. How to identify sector spending
Sector codes
DAC has one sector code per project
DFID uses multiple sector coding
DFID sector codes based on DACs
Cross cutting markers
HIV and AIDS
Gender

16. Other reporting issues
All UK aid untied
General Budget Support
Reported to DAC as lump sum
UK notionally allocates GBS to sectors
Spending targets
International and UK
Progress needs to be measured
Appropriate methodologies
In year progress measured

17. Other reporting issues
Monitoring and evaluation
How and where multilaterals use UK contributions
Other UK government departments contribute towards UK ODA
Conflict prevention
Debt relief
Environment Ministry
Ministry of Health
Foreign Office projects

18. DFID as percent of total UK ODA

19. Strengths and Weaknesses of UK system
Open and transparent
Too many reports
More detail than DAC
Differences with DAC
Dedicated statistical resources
Different measures
Easily accessible statistics
Other Government Departments
Burden on project officers