Aid projects not properly monitored, says watchdog

from The Guardian

David Hencke, Westminster correspondent

Guardian Unlimited

Department for International Development staff based overseas are failing to venture out into the bush or the jungle to check whether Britain's burgeoning overseas aid programme is delivering what the rural poor want, the National Audit Office reveals today.

Parliament's financial watchdog discloses that the most desk-bound civil servants are stationed in Afghanistan and Rwanda, where they have spent just one day in the last year visiting multi-million pound projects paid for by the British taxpayer.

Our men and women working for the Department for International Development (DfID) prefer to stay in Kabul and Kigali and monitor the projects from there, according to the report.

Other countries where DfID's staff hardly ever venture out include Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ghana and Mozambique.

The NAO says the ministry is already under fire from other donors, voluntary groups and non-governmental organisations who do work in rural areas for its failure to " reality check" what is happening on the ground.

The NAO says it is "important for country teams to have a good understanding of how budget support and other programmes are affecting poor people's lives".

One exception is Tanzania, where staff are positively encouraged to check up on schemes outside the capital.

As a result, each member of staff spends over 12 days a year in the field - three times the average and 12 times as much as staff in Rwanda.

However, the report praises many of the schemes promoted by the ministry which did achieve their objectives.

Examples included improved primary education in a remote rural province of China and land conservation in Kenya.

But other schemes fell apart because they were not monitored ,notably two schemes in Mozambique - a £7.4m rural roads scheme that brought jobs for 15,000 people but then fell back because the roads were not maintained and a farmers project near the Zambezi which did not reach enough local people.

A DfID spokesperson said: "DfID puts great importance on staff visiting rural areas so they can better understand rural poverty.

"In Tanzania, for example, incentives have been introduced to encourage DfID staff to visit the field more often.

"Security issues obviously limit the number of field visits our staff can undertake in certain countries, including Afghanistan. Our staff also work closely with development partners operating in the field."

Andrew Mitchell, the shadow secretary of state for international development, said: "It is worrying that this report found that the lack of reliable data at sub-national level in many developing countries means that it is hard to assess whether rural areas are receiving their fair share of investment.

"This underlines the need for an independent aid watchdog to monitor the effectiveness of British aid. We've been pressing the government to establish one for almost a year now. We must focus on outcomes - not just inputs."

However, the international development secretary, Hilary Benn, said: "I am pleased that the NAO has recognised our achievements in providing help to rural communities.

"We are determined to improve the lives of the rural poor as it will be impossible to eradicate extreme poverty and achieve the millennium development goals without fighting rural poverty."