The Resource Alliance has warned that the emphasis on accountability and impact reporting in the Department for International Development’s new standards for suppliers could have a “devastating effect” on smaller aid charities.
On Friday, Secretary of State for International Development Justine Greening released DfID’s new ‘priorities and expectations for suppliers’ which emphasised accountability, transparency and improving value for money. The new guidelines include having DfID suppliers – which include NGOs – agreeing to link payment to results and to publish information on how and where DfID money is being used, including when programmes have failed or fallen short of target. The targets do not apply solely to the initial recipient of DfID investment, but to “all members of the supply chain”.
Releasing the new two-page directive, Greening said: “Suppliers need to show they are delivering the very best value for taxpayers' money in delivery of the development budget.”
The move by DfID is the latest measure in a general push towards greater transparency in aid spending, particularly amid some public disquiet over the budget being 'ringfenced' from cuts. It follows Greening's announcement last autumn that the department will be reviewing its use of contractors across the board.
But the Resource Alliance, the global fundraising capacity-building organisation, warned that the new standards, with their focus on sophisticated accounting and reporting techniques, threaten to exclude small charities if there is not a commensurate investment in capacity-building at these small- and mid-sized NGOs.
Head of business development and education at RA, Perry Seymour, argued: “The fact payments will be ‘in line with results’ could have a major impact on smaller NGOs if their funding is reduced for failing to reach the target number of beneficiaries, even if through no fault of their own.
“Despite the fact capacity development is a fundamental component of development and aid effectiveness it remains a critical missing factor in development and aid efforts.”
