Have your say on global poverty at DFID

[Karsten Weitzenegger]

Want your say on the fight against global poverty?
http://consultation.dfid.gov.uk
DFID (UK Department for International Development) is working on a new White Paper that will be published in July 2009. You can join regional consultation events to share your ideas. You’ll have the chance to ask questions and debate a focus topic. There are 12 events being held around the UK between now and 18 May.

[Phil]

DFID - I am actually very tired after years of trying to engage with DFID on effective public private partnerships which embrace the mainstream markets and go beyond DFIDs preoccupation with niche markets, I have submitted many ideas on this subject to them and on fragile states and they cannot be bothered to even get in touch - even to tell me that the ideas are rubbish. The reason possibly lies in that they know what policy they want to create and they are going to work back from there and not from the submissions now called for.
The biggest problem for DFID is that they are not focusiing on fixing fundamental problems but rather on the symptoms - this obviously keeps DFID in business for longer. What we should be looking for is country specfic vehicles which deliver aid (within public privare partnerships where possible) in an integratred way without the proliferation of country offices for various agencies which to me seem unnecessary if you are only inolved with budget support - which by the way is not working for agricultural poor from what I see. The monitoring and evaluation of aid spend of DFID was recently criticised by the Parliamentary Select Committee - something I have had concerns about for a long time - but without DFID even deigning to speak to me - this of course has been difficult to get at. I recently spent time at a District Assembly in Ghana which confirmed my concerns and having spoken with some of the people there you can see all of the form filling in place but no money. You then see different development agencies coming in , doing a programme and going away having ticked all the boces - not having integrated with other donors and not coming bakcthe following year. The Select Committee's point was that DFID were good at spending the mnoey but not verifying what it had achieved. This is due to the self serving approach of the Department which needs to change. Being polite in the past hasn't worked - maybe people need to ask more questions about the management of £5.5 billion per annum of tax payers money, and also the £60 billion per annum of collective agency spend in developing countries - as many in develping countries will say to you - "where is it??".