Providing international aid directly to the poorest and most vulnerable people shows clear and immediate benefits, according to a report by Britain's National Audit Office
Providing international aid directly to the poorest and most vulnerable people shows clear and immediate benefits, according to a report by Britain’s National Audit Office.
Over the last decade, donors working on poverty reduction have focused on supporting developing country governments to deliver public services such as health and education.
But Britain’s Department for International Aid (DFID) and other donors are increasingly interested in transferring resources directly to people in need. These transfers, as they are called, include cash, food, livestock and other agricultural assets.
A report by the National Audit Office, which scrutinises public spending, looked at transfer schemes funded by Britain in Bangladesh, Kenya, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.
It concluded that such programmes had brought clear short-term benefits, for example by improving diet and raising incomes. There was also evidence of longer-term benefits such as improved livelihoods, health and education, where initiatives had been running for some time.
But the report said DFID was not doing all it could to ensure it was getting the best value for money.
It also pointed out that the use of electronic transfers could be a more efficient and reliable way of reaching more isolated people. They are not yet widely employed by DFID, although there are plans to increase their use.
Britain currently has major transfer programmes in nine countries, but plans to make use of them in 16 of its 28 priority countries by 2014.
In 2010-11, DFID spent some £192 million ($306 million) on social protection, which includes transfer programmes.
Read the full report here.
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