Monitoring Development Cooperation Policy: multilateral organisations and the EU
The Court of Audit has carried out a fifth audit of developments in the expenditure of Official Development Assistance (ODA). We have been monitoring this expenditure since 2011. This year we paid particular attention to multilateral governmental organisations and European Union organisations that receive OD funds.
The fifth report shows that the trend of focusing on partner countries and thematic priorities slowly but steadily continued in 2013. We also found greater fragmentation, however : a relatively small proportion of the funds is allocated to a large group of countries and organisations that individually receive a relatively small amount.
Conclusions
Fragmentation
Despite the greater focus on thematic priorities and countries, development cooperation is still fragmented. There is a large group of both countries and multilateral organisations that individually receive a relatively small amount of ODA.
HGIS reports
The reports on the HGIS (Homogenous Budget for International Cooperation) submitted to the House of Representatives do not give a full picture of the allocation of funds to countries and regions. Information on the funds flows to multilateral and EU organisations that are considered in our report also cannot be derived directly from the HGIS reports.
Result measurement
Result measurement is a major challenge for development organisations. Such information that is available on results relates principally to outputs (such as the number of malaria nets issued or the number of teachers trained) and often only at project level (in other words, which activities have been completed in project x, y or z). To determine whether aid delivers value for money, evaluations must do more than simply measure the output of a project and must be ‘scaled up’ for the results achieved in a particular country (such as fewer children contracting a disease or a higher general level of education). Evaluations must also determine whether the results are the outcome of a particular organisation.
Knowledge management
Good knowledge management improves the effectiveness and efficiency of the organisations’ monitoring and activities, but its implementation is often slow. We found that the Minister had not fulfilled the undertaking she gave further to our monitoring report for 2012 to set up a project team to implement knowledge management. She had not done so because she wants to share responsibility for knowledge management within the organisation.
Open data and OECD DAC structure
With the publication of open data on financial flows in development cooperation and in the Ministry for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation’s budget, the Minister has taken an important step to increase the availability of information to the public. The information is ordered in accordance with the internationally accepted OECD DAC structure. This structure is based on information received from recipients. The information in Dutch policy documents and reports is based chiefly on four channels: bilateral, multilateral, business and society. The structures are therefore different.
Recommendations
Fragmentation
Fragmentation influences operational management and requires both administrative and policy-related capacity. We recommend that efforts continue to reduce fragmentation, for example by bundling more funds flows.
HGIS reports
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation should provide a more complete picture of funds flows to developing countries and multilateral organisations so that the House of Representatives is better informed and can form an opinion on the funds flows.
Result measurement
We recommend that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation invest in the more effective measurement of the results achieved by multilateral and EU organisations and insist on an improvement in evaluation capacity at field level. The investment would pay itself back as the knowledge could be used to steer current development programmes and to set up new programmes. We also recommend that the two Ministries publish information on policy results in the form of open data, as they do in respect of financial flows.
Knowledge management
We recommend that the Minister appoint a clear leader to monitor the knowledge management process and set a deadline for its implementation. We also recommend that the Minister widen the use of the scorecards currently used to collect and share knowledge on 30 multilateral organisations within the Ministry and strengthen the scorecards with information on results.
Open data and OECD DAC structure
Working with different structures is not in the interests of transparency. We therefore recommend that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation consult the House of Representatives to improve the situation.
Response
The Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation responded to our draft report on 6 November 2014. The Minister agreed with the conclusions and recommendations and confirmed that the Ministry had successfully increased the focus on the four thematic priorities. She made several comments on our conclusions and recommendations.