In his first main policy speech since taking office, Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell, the new Secretary of State for International Development, announced plans to create a new independent watchdog to ensure British aid paid for by the taxpayer is good value for money and pledged greater transparency in the government’s aid spending.
Speaking at the Royal Society at the launch of Oxfam’s latest briefing paper entitled '21st Century Aid', Mr Mitchell was keen to stress how important it is the taxpayer is able to see exactly how and where overseas aid money is being spent and said he had taken the key steps towards creating an independent aid watchdog to ensure value for money.‘One million new independent watchdogs’
But the undeniable buzzword of the speech was transparency – repeated no less than a dozen times. As part of this greater drive for greater government transparency he also announced a new UKaid Transparency Guarantee which he said will ensure that full and exhaustive information on his entire department’s spending on aid projects is published on the departmental website. “I hope this creates another one million new independent watchdogs,” he dryly remarked.
Later on in his speech, Mr Mitchell argued that not only is overseas aid morally right, it is “in Britain’s national interest” and taxpayers need to see more evidence their money is being spent well.
“We need a fundamental change of direction,” he said, “we need to focus on results and outcomes, not just inputs. Aid spending decisions should be made on the basis of evidence, not guesswork. That is why we have taken the first steps towards creating a new independent aid watchdog.”
“The UK Aid Transparency Guarantee will also help to create a million independent aid watchdogs – people around the world who can see where aid money is supposed to be going – and shout if it doesn’t get there,” he continued.
"We will never maintain public support among hard pressed taxpayers for this vital and large programme unless we can demonstrate independently that when we spend £1 on development we are actually getting 100 pence of value.”
Coalition 'united'
Commenting that the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government was ‘united’ in its plans towards aid and development, Mr Mitchell remarked that “development is good for our economy, our safety, our health, our future” and send out a firm pledge to the country: “to the British taxpayer I say this: our aim is to spend every penny of every pound of your money wisely and well. We want to squeeze every last ounce of value from it. We owe you that.”
“And I promise you as well that in future, when it comes to international development, we will want to see hard evidence of the impact your money makes. Not just dense and impenetrable budget lines but clear evidence of real effect,” he said.
The announcement of the new independent UK aid watchdog was welcomed by Barbara Stocking, Oxfam GB’s Chief Executive, who said this will improve the quality of British aid which has been something Oxfam has requested for years.
However, she also was cautious towards its conception warning that “the new watchdog must be truly independent of government if it is to achieve the best results for the British taxpayer and poor people alike.”
“We cannot argue with any of the principals [outlined in Mr Mitchell’s speech], but the devil is in the detail as to how these principals are handled,” she said.
The organisation’s report, for which today’s meeting was organised, argues that strengthening transparency and accountability will be important in further improving the quality of British aid but that this is no the end of the story but part of a much larger picture. The report concludes that ensuring aid is focused on poverty-prevention measures and not politically driven is vital to ensuring it makes the biggest possible difference to the lives of the world’s poorest.
But as Mr Mitchell revealed this afternoon, “aid is, quite simply, tremendous value for money” and he dubbed it “the best return on investment that you’ll find anywhere in government.”
While the new independent watchdog is a good idea and widely welcomed, Mr Mitchell will no doubt come under further criticism for setting up a new body at the same time as the new government has been criticising the number of existing quangos…
