UK reviews international aid spending and finds some winners

Brittan has just completed a review of their international aid payments. The review focused on which recipients of UK money are the most effective in easing social ills. The UK government say the results of this study will alter the amount the subjects receive. The organizations and countries with the best results will get more money. Some organizations who didn't fare so well might have aid completely removed.

From the Guardian, writer Annie Kelly gives us the results.

In terms of multilateral aid, Unicef, the Global Fund and the World Food Programme performed well against a set of measurement criteria and are likely to receive funding increases.

In contrast, organisations, including UN Habitat and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) will lose future DfID funding after they failed to prove they were delivering significant change on the ground.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is criticised for its patchy track record and warned that future support is contingent on better performance.

According to many in the development world, this is no great surprise. However, Oxfam has warned that as the world faces its second food crisis in three years, the government must not abandon the agency.

"It's perfectly valid to acknowledge problems with the agency," says Kathleen Spencer Chapman, head of UK government relations at Oxfam GB, "but DfID must prioritise working with them to make sure these are maintained and that withdrawal is not the easy option."

Regarding bilateral aid, Mitchell had already warned that the UK would no longer pour aid money into better off countries such as China and Russia

In the review on Tuesday, 14 more countries, including Cambodia, Vietnam, Gambia and Angola, joined them, cutting the numbers of countries receiving UK aid from 49 to 27. More controversially, the poorer Niger, Burundi and Lesotho were also on the list.

After sustained criticism, India will retain its £280m aid budget. Another major beneficiary of the streamlined aid budget is Ethiopia, which will become the UK's biggest aid recipient by 2014, making . Kenya and Rwanda will also see hikes in UK aid.

Fragile states will receive 30% of the overall UK aid budget, a total of around £3.8m by 2014. Pakistan, Nigeria, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Yemen will see the biggest percentage increase.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/mar/01/winners-losers-uk-aid-review-reaction